Amy, the cloned cow

Bovine Telomere Length Reprogrammed News Release

Previous News Release on Amy, the first cow cloned in United States

June 10, 1999

STORRS, Conn. - A research team of University of Connecticut animal scientists on Thursday announced the birth of the first cloned calf from an adult farm animal in the United States.

At about 10:30 a.m., a Holstein heifer named AMY, was delivered by C-section at the University of Connecticut's Kellogg Dairy Center, said Dr. Xiangzhong (Jerry) Yang, head of UConn's Transgenic Animal Facility.

Amy's genetic mother, Aspen, is nearly 14 years old. She had 8 lactation (births), but only had one heifer. She is too old to reproduce naturally or by traditional sexual reproduction, said Yang.

"We took a simple ear skin biopsy (a simple minute procedure) and used the cells for cloning," Yang explained. "The embryo was cultured for 7 days in the laboratory and the embryo was transferred to a surrogate mother on October 5, 1998. Our first clone, named Amy, was born today, weighing 94
pounds.

"This is the first large animal cloned from genetic material extracted from an adult farm animal in the United States," said Yang. "Dozens of laboratories around the nation have been racing to produce the first clones
from adult farm animals, particularly cows. We're happy to be the first one."

Amy's birth is especially significant because she is the first successfully cloned animal from non-reproductive related cells, said Yang noting the new-born calf was cloned from the ear skin fibroblast cells of an adult
cow. With the exception of mice, Amy is the first animal cloned from adult fibroblast cells, Yang said.

Two years ago, for example, the cloned sheep Dolly was produced after scientists inserted a cell from a ewe's udder into an egg after removing the egg's DNA. The bioengineered embryo was implanted in the ewe's womb and Dolly developed.

Similarly, last summer, the first cloned cows were produced from the oviduct or oocyte cumulus cells.

"The fact that Amy is produced from the skin fibroblast cells is of significance because compared to using female reproductive cells (mammary tissues or reproductive organ cells), skin biopsy may be taken more easily without using any equipment and none invasive," Yang explained. "Secondly, skin cells may be taken from either sex of the animal and at any ages. This finding certainly has significance for efforts in saving endangered species, possibly by cloning."

Additionally, it is also noteworthy that Amy is a from an aged, high performing cow - 13 years old, 35.000 pounds of milk annually, said Yang. Cloning adult animals offers the possibility to quickly expand a valuable
animal herd of high milk producing cows or proven valuable genetically engineered animals, he added. Additionally this technology also offers a potential tool to generate or multiply transgenic animals to produce
therapeutic proteins or as organ donors, Yang said.

"Amy is a very valuable clone from a valuable cow," said Yang, noting how the young heifer's black-white pattern is identical to that of her genetic mother. "We hope that her level of milk production is identical too."

There are still many questions to be answered about cloning. An important question is that will cloning reprogram the donor's age. Recently geneticists announced that Dolly may be susceptible to disease and premature aging because her genes were copied from a 6-year-old sheep.

"The fact that Amy is cloned from an aged live cow makes her even more valuable," said Yang noting that UCONN scientists will closely "follow for her live span, her health, behavior, growth and aging rate, and her own
reproduction performances.

"Cloned animals are ideal for many experiment research, such as comparing drug efficiency, nutrition test or toxicology test," said Yang. "The fact that they are genetically identical makes the experimental findings more
meaningful, without confounding with genetic variation factors. The number of animals to be used for experiment may be reduced significantly, when using cloned animals."