One night in April I was browsing on Yahoo and read the news that researchers at Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences had cloned a horse. The horse was named Paris Texas because it was created as part of a joint venture with a French firm.
Here
I am with Paris Texas.
I also learned that the horse was the sixth animal species cloned at Texas A&M, more than any other institution in the world, academic or otherwise. I had known about the cat, but not about the bull, the deer, the Boer goat or the hogs. I wasted no time in setting up a barnyard tour to meet them all.
I found CC the cat —CC stands for copy cat—holding court in the vet school offices, especially the offices of Dr. Duane Kraemer and Dr. Mark Westhusin, key members of the university’s cloning research team. CC now lives the cat’s good life at Dr. Kraemer’s home.
CC
the copycat.
They told me that CC, born in December 2001 and represented the world’s first cloned companion animal, was in heat but that no suitable male companion had yet been identified. No wonder. It’s hard enough to impress and please one protective father in such affairs, much less a group of hovering professor fathers. Somehow I felt like the chancellor should have a vote as well.
Dr.
Westhusin, left, and Dr. Kraemer discuss the virtues of 86 Squared. I didn’t
put my hand inside the pen.
During
the tour of the cloning lab, I looked through a microscope and pretended
to see what was being pointed out to me—cow eggs, as I recall. Also
in the lab were large cylinders full of frozen tissue, embryos and semen
of many species—some even endangered—that might be cloned in
the future. The research team calls that the frozen zoo.
These
hogs made history, but not because of their good looks.
86 Squared, the cloned Angus bull, was a mighty impressive creature, so much so that even his creators stood a couple of feet back from his pen. I learned that he was cloned in November 2000 and is believed to be the first animal specifically cloned to be resistant to diseases such as brucellosis, tuberculosis and salmonellosis, which have virtually been eradicated in the United States but are common in the rest of the world.
86 Squared was cloned using cells from the tip of the ear of his genetic donor, Bull 86, who was naturally (genetically) resistant to these diseases. The cells had been frozen for 15 years, the longest time ever that genetic material had been frozen, thawed and successfully used in cloning. Bull 86 died three years before 86 Squared came into the world.
In another first, Texas A&M scientists in 1999 successfully cloned a calf from a 21-year-old Brahman steer, which was the oldest animal ever cloned. The calf, named Second Chance, has identical markings and DNA as his father, Chance.
Somehow the deer born in 2003—while healthy looking and cute—never made a lasting impression on me. The two hogs, however, did. I’ve seen my fair share of hogs, but these were about as ugly as I’ve ever seen. I don’t even think lipstick would do these hogs any good. Besides, it would probably annoy them.
The hogs reminded me of something Coach Gene Stallings said in his remarks at his investiture as a new member of the Board of Regents in May. He said that when he had a player on his football team who wasn’t very good, he didn’t blame the player. He blamed the responsible recruiter. Well, I guess looks aren’t everything.
Our vet school professors don’t just clone animals to see if they can or because they can, although that would be reason enough for me.
Instead, these researchers think that cloning technology can one day be used to benefit animal production, animal and human health and scientific advancements. Mark Westhusin told me that new organs or tissue might one day be created through cloning that could replace a diseased organ or tissue. As with mice, the genetic makeup of most mammals has more in common with humans than we might like to admit, and comparative studies involving many different animal species has already proven invaluable for new scientific discovery..
I knew I had a lot to learn as Chancellor. I just didn't know what, and how much fun it would be. And I haven't even told you about my exploits at the Texas A&M Horse Center yet. Is this a great country, or what?
