China's first cloned calf was born at 9:25 pm on Friday in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province. Xinhua reports seeing the lively black and white female calf named Weiwei drinking from its nursing bottle.

"Weiwei is China's first calf to be born following the embryo production and transplantation technology, which shows China's cloning technology has reached the world's most advanced level," said Chen Dayuan, a research fellow with the Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

At the Animal Embryo Project Center in Caoxian County, Jinan, 12 pregnant cows who are part of the scientific experiment are expected to give birth cloned calves within the next 20 days.

The surrogate mothers are under close supervision by scientists from CAS.

The center has set up a 320-square meter delivery room and prepared comprehensive medical equipment for the cows to give birth.

When the experiment started, researchers removed cells from the ears of a finely-breed bull and a high-yield dairy cow, combined the cells with the oocytes of a cattle from west Shandong, and successfully implanted the cloned embryos into cows making them pregnant, a scientist with the center said.

This was the first successful experiment of its kind wholly conducted in China, he said.

Prior to this, cloned cows have been born in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province and Laiyang in Shandong. However, their embryos were imported from foreign countries.

Scientists here expected the cow cloning technology has a broad market potential, and it can also provide experience for exploring related technology to be used to clone rare species, such as the Gaint Panda.

The cow cloning technology will enter production stage in three to five years according to the experts.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2002)