Chinese scientists confirmed Saturday the death of China's first cloned calf, which was born at 9:25 pm Friday in Caoxian County, east China's Shandong Province.
The female calf died more than one hour after her birth at the Animal Embryo Project Center in Caoxian County, according to Saturday's China Youth Daily.
During an interview with Xinhua, Yu Zhongbo, general manager of the Shandong Zhongda Animal Embryo Project Center, which carried out the embryo transplantation, said that the cause of the cloned calf's death is not clear right now.
Yu said the expected date of the calf's birth was originally on January 27, but the surrogate mother cow showed signs to give birth Friday night. The mother cow gave birth to the cloned calf through a Cesarean section.
Yu said that the mother cow has been ill and received transfusion over the past two months and that may have affected the life of the calf.
Based on the current level of cloning technology in the world, nobody can assure a 100 percent success in cloning animals, Yu said.
Weiwei, the cloned calf, drank from its nursing bottle and made "moo, moo" after its birth last night.
The birth of Weiwei marks the first successful experiment of its kind wholly conducted in China, an expert with the Caoxian center said.
At the center, another 11 pregnant cows, who are part of the scientific experiment, are expected to give birth to cloned calves in the days to come.
(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2002)
