MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) – Researchers in the Philippines say they are close to creating the world’s first clone of a water buffalo that could raise productivity levels for millions of impoverished farmers.
The aim is to replicate a super buffalo that would boost the genetic make-up and milk production of the native water buffalo, the carabao, said Libertado Cruz, executive director of the government-run Philippine Carabao Centre.
“We are now in the process of transferring the cloned embryos to a surrogate dam,” he said.
“By the middle of next year we can expect some live animals.”
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The indebted southeast Asian nation is not usually known for technological innovation, but Cruz said cloning had become easier and cheaper since Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, entered the world in 1997.
Brazil has created clones of cattle, including an endangered cow species earlier this year.
Cruz said researchers at the centre had created the embryos by fusing genetic material from somatic cells taken from a Bulgarian water buffalo’s ear with the eggs of local carabao.
The Philippines has imported about 3,500 Bulgarian buffalo, which are descendents of a high yielding Murrah breed from India, Cruz said.
The carabao, of which there are an estimated 3.2 million in the Philippines, is a national symbol because of its role in everything from pulling carts to producing meat and milk.
