It takes more than a year for the research team, headed by Prof. LI Ning with China Agriculture University, to see the birth of a piglet cloned from body cells on August 5, 2005. Researchers of Hebei Sanhe Minghui Pig Farm told reporters that the piglet is healthy. The event makes China seventh country capable of cloning a pig using body cells in the world, following the UK, Japan, the United States, Australia, Korea, and Germany.
The research team has made three rounds of experiments. In January 2005, researchers planted the lab-conceived embryos into ten white sows, without success. In April, they planted similar embryos in three sows, and made one of them conceived. In May, researchers planted embryos in another two sows. One of the two got pregnant, but unfortunately miscarried 21 days later. On August 5, 2005, the sow that got pregnant in April gave the birth to three piglets in black color, after a 116-day pregnancy. Only one piglet survived the birth, with two others dying of abnormal conditions. |
