Chinese scientists have succeeded in
cloning a cow with gene cells resistant to mad cow disease, the
official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

The birth of the 55-kg (121-lb) calf in the eastern
province of Shandong comes three years after a team led by
now-disgraced South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk cloned cows
with a protein structure resistant to bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE).

"Scientists with the Laiyang Agro-Science Institute in
Shandong said they used gene-transplant technology to introduce
the genes to the calf cloned from cells of an adult cow,"
Xinhua said.

The research was led by professors Dong Yajuan and Bo
Xuejin — who succeeded in cloning China’s first and second
healthy cows in 2001 — in collaboration with a Japanese
university.

State television reported that further tests would be
required on the calf as it grows to verify the effectiveness of
the transplanted genes.