Author : Dr. P. D.GUPTA
Former Director Grade Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India
www.daylife.page
On 5th July 1966 for the first time the sheep “Dolly” was cloned after a long gap when handsome boy cloned by Devi Parvati and named Ganesh. After Dolly’s birth many scientists were engaged in cloning research. For details one can read 2 articles written and a book by me (1. Without egg, sperm or uterus, it is possible to get babies, and 2. Chances of creating human clone, Cloning by P D Gupta on Google).There are several possibilities of having advantages and disadvantages of the Cloning Technology.
About a week back China clones 'super cows,' which became hot news in the globe? These 'super cows, are capable of producing “an unusually high amount of milk.”
A1 milk is the most abundantly available and, the most commonly consumed milk today. A1 milk is obtained from cows of Western origin like Holstein Friesian, Jersey etc. and yields large quantities of milk. A2 milk, on the other hand, is obtained from cows of Indian origin like Gir, Sahiwal etc. The two proteins are almost identical — they each contain 209 amino acids, the building blocks of any protein. The only difference between A1 and A2 is a difference in the 67th amino acid in the chain. At this position, A1 has a histidine amino acid, while A2 has a proline amino acid.
Kamadhenu (left, 2nd from top) depicted in a scene of the Churning of the Cosmic Ocean
The first cow on this planet “Kamadhenu-Surabhi” rose from the churning of the cosmic ocean (Samudra Manthana) by the gods and demons. She was ordered by the creator-god Brahma to give milk, and supply it and ghee for ritual fire-sacrifices. . Further, Surabhi gave birth to many golden cows called Kapila cows, who were called the mothers of the world.
China has claimed successfully cloning three 'super cows' that could give 100,000 litres milk each in their lifetimes. The three calves, bred by scientists from the Northwest A&F University, were born in China's Ningxia region. Only five in 10,000 of common cattle breeds in China can produce as much milk as a super cow.
The results suggest that cattle in ancient China was imported from the Near East around 4,300 years ago and made their first appearance in the Yellow River Valley. Once they had arrived in central China, these small-sized domesticated cattle soon spread and were exploited intensively from then on.
How was the super cow made?
Until recently, super cows have been developed through selective breeding - either traditional breeding or, since the 1960s, artificial insemination. Now the term tends to be applied to cows that have been genetically altered or whose genome has been studied in order to improve breeding. a dairy cow that produces a very high milk yield as a result of selective breeding or genetic modification.
Chinese scientists have successfully cloned three “super cows” that can produce an unusually high amount of milk, state media reported, hailing it as a breakthrough for China’s dairy industry to reduce its dependence on imported breeds.
The three calves, bred by scientists from the Northwest University of Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology, were born in the Ningxia region in the weeks leading up to the Lunar New Year on January 23, the state-run Ningxia Daily reported.
They were cloned from highly productive cows from the Holstein Friesian breed, which originated in the Netherlands. The chosen animals are capable of producing 18 tons of milk per year, or 100 tons of milk in their lifetimes.
The first of the cloned calves was born on December 30 by cesarean section due to its relatively large size of 56.7 kilograms (120 pounds), an official in the city of Wulin in Ningxia told the state-run Technology Daily.
The scientists made 120 cloned embryos from the ear cells of the highly productive cows and placed them in surrogate cows, according to the Technology Daily.
Jin Yaping, the project’s lead scientist, called the birth of the “super cows” a “breakthrough” that allows China to preserve the very best cows “in an economically feasible way,” the state-run newspaper Global Times reported.
Until now, as much as 70% of China’s dairy cows are imported from overseas, according to the Global Times. China has made significant progress in animal cloning in recent years. In 2017, Chinese scientists said they produced cloned cattle with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis, a risk to cattle in many countries. (The author has his own study and views)
