Africa produced its first cloned animal in April when researchers in South Africa successfully cloned a cow.
The cloned cow was named Futi, which is Zulu for “replica.” Futi was cloned from DNA taken from a cow that holds the African record for milk production at 20 gallons per day.
Researchers at the South AFrican Embryo Plus center and the Danish Agriculture Institute collaborated to clone the animal. The researchers used a zona-free cloning method which has a number of advantages over the method used to initially clone Dolly the sheep, including that zona-free cloning cuts the time involved in half and can be done with simpler equipment and procedures.
Sources:
S. Africa scientists ‘clone cow’. Associated Press, May 7, 2003.
Cow becomes Africa’s first clone. The BBC, May 7, 2003.