Iran in successful cloning experiment
Iran’s second cloned lamb is still alive half a day after its birth - a record for the survival of an animal cloned by the country’s scientists, a research official said today.
The male lamb was delivered by caesarean and is still alive more than 12 hours later, according to Dr Mohammed Hossein Nasre Isfahani, head of the Royan research institute in Isfahan.
Dr Isfahani said the animal, dubbed Royana, is recovering in an incubator because he was having difficulty breathing.
“Its condition is stable now,” he said.
“Royana was fed milk twice; once by a tube in its stomach and the second time, naturally through its mouth,” added the scientist.
In August, Iranian doctors oversaw the birth of the country’s first cloned animal – a lamb that died minutes after it was born. Future experiments in genetics and stem cell research – using animal cells – are planned.
The Islamic regime wants Iran to become a regional centre for medical, aerospace and nuclear technology – which has led to an international showdown over Western claims that it wants to develop atomic weapons.
Dr Isfahani said the sheep implanted with the cloned embryo was doing well following the birth.
The research team plans to publish the findings of its experiment in an international scientific journal, but has not decided which publication to submit them to, the head of the research centre said.
Iranian researchers in Tehran and Isfahan plan additional cloning experiments in the coming months.
Iran’s Shiite Muslim religious leaders backed the programme by issuing religious decrees authorising animal cloning but banning such experiments with humans.
A majority of Iran’s nearly 70 million people are Shiites who comprise about 15% of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims.
Many Sunni Muslim clerics in other Islamic countries, however, have spoken against cloning in any form.
British scientists made international headlines a decade ago with Dolly the cloned sheep. Since then, rapid progress in stem cell research and genetics have raised widespread debates about ethics and the boundaries of medicine.
Scientists say cloning sheep and other animals could lead to advances in medical research, including using cloned animals to produce human antibodies against diseases.
