The camel celebrates its sixth birthday and a pregnancy !
Injaz, the world’s first cloned camel, celebrates her sixth birth yesterday and she’s pregnant, according to scientists at the Reproductive Biotechnology Centre in Nad Al Sheba, Dubai, who cloned the camel from ovarian cells in a breakthrough.
According to BBC, Injaz was unveiled to the world a few days after birth, scientists hailed it as a significant breakthrough that would help to preserve the genetics of the camel population - both elite racing camels and those that produce milk. Since then many more of the animals have been produced through genetic cloning, including one cloned from the cells of a camel beauty pageant winner.
"We are very excited because Injaz is now pregnant and we expect to have a calf from her late this year,” Dr Dr Nisar Wani, scientific director of the centre, was quoted in the National. “She has conceived in a natural way. This will prove cloned camels are fertile and can reproduce the same as naturally produced camels.” Dr Wani elaborated.
Injaz's birth created great excitement, with the New York scientific journal Biology of Reproduction carrying her picture on its cover.
In 2010 Bin Soughan, the world’s first camel calf cloned from the skin cells of a bull, came into the world.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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