Bonyana Iran’s first cloned calf was successfully born via cesarean section on Saturday July 11th 2009 in the Nasr Animal Husbandry affiliated with Royan Institute’s Isfahan Campus.
“This was the most important part of Royan Institute’s research in the field of cloning and transgenic animals which can lead to the production of farm animals and recombinant drugs” said Dr. Mohammed Hossein Nasr Isfahani Head of Royan Institute’s Isfahan Campus.
The birth of Bonyana proves Iran’s technological advances in stem cell and cloning research.
Only a few countries have the technology to clone farm animals and Iran is one of them having proven its capabilities after the recent birth of the first cloned calf Boyana; the first cloned goat in April 2009 and the first cloned sheep in 2006 all at Royan Institute.
The success rate of cloning procedures at Royan Institute is comparable with pioneer countries in this field such as New Zealand Denmark and the USA.
Bonyana which means principle and foundation was born as a result of producing 2000 cloned embryos and the transfer of 300 embryos to 100 recipient cows in two years.
Initially the pregnancy rates after transferring cloned embryos were high but most gestations ended in abortion in the third month of pregnancy.
Only five cases continued to month six of which three aborted due to acute hydroallantois the most common etiology of abortion in cloning.
Royan Institute scientists hope to announce the birth of a second cloned calf in the coming days.
Producing the first transgenic goat cells that contain a genome for producing t-PA is another achievement of Royan Institute which gives the hope of producing transgenic goats that can secret drugs for overcoming the complications myocardial infarction in their milk.
The Institute is also ready to revive animal species which are exposed to extinction by using cloning technology.
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Iran’s first cloned calf named Bonyana Date: 2010-01-26