3 super cows cloned in China

The scientists decided to clone to reduce the number of imports. According to them, this scientific experiment could be a turning point for the dairy industry in the country.

Selected animals can give 18 tons of milk per year and 100 tons of milk for a lifetime. That’s almost 1.7 times the amount of milk the average cow in the US will produce in 2021.

Three calves cloned by scientists were born in Ningxia region. They were cloned from Holstein cows originating in the Netherlands. The first of these was born by cesarean section on December 30, due to her relatively large size of 56.7 kilograms.

In total, Chinese scientists created 120 cloned embryos from cow’s ear cells and implanted them into surrogate mothers.

Up to 70% of China’s dairy cows are imported from abroad.

Only 5 out of 10,000 cows in China produce 100 tons of milk in their lifetime, making them a valuable breeding resource. But some high-yielding cows are not identified for the rest of their lives, making them difficult to raise.

3 super cows cloned in China / Photo: UnSplash

It is known that China buys about 70% of cows from other countries. According to scientists, two – More than a thousand herds of “super cows” are planned to be raised over three years to solve the import problem.

We plan to spend 2-3 years building a herd of more than 1,000 super cows, which will provide a solid foundation for solving the problem of China’s dependence on foreign dairy cows and eliminating the risks of supply chain disruption.
– said Jin Yaping, the lead author of the project.

In recent years, China has made significant progress in animal cloning.

Last year, a Chinese animal cloning company created the world’s first cloned arctic wolf. And in 2017, Chinese scientists said they had produced cloned cattle with increasing resistance to bovine tuberculosis, which poses a threat to cattle in many countries.