First successful cloning!
The endangered cattle on the roof of the world were born on the mainland
Here's the good news. The endangered cattle breeds on the roof of the world, the Zhangmu cattle and the Ngapoi Jiajiao cattle, were recently successfully cloned in Yunyang, Chongqing. This is the world's first successful cloning of endangered cattle breeds on the snowy plateau, and the first time that cloned cattle were born in the southwest of the mainland.
Successfully cloned camphorwood cattle (top) and Ngapoi Jiasa cattle (bottom). (Photo courtesy of Yunyang County Agriculture and Rural Committee, Chongqing)
On January 29, at the meeting on the promotion of the rescue protection of Zhangmu cattle and Apei Jiasa cattle held in Yunyang, the project team of rescue protection and germplasm characteristics evaluation of endangered cattle resources in Tibet announced the news.
Why clone the cattle breed resources of the snowy plateau?
Because Zhangmu cattle and Ngapoi Jiajiao cattle are rare local cattle breeds in the world, they are strategic resources for the country to cultivate breeds that adapt to the plateau environment. According to the assessment of the third national census of livestock and poultry genetic resources, there are only 19 camphorwood cattle, only 39 Apoi cattle, and only 1 usable breeding bull, which are on the verge of extinction.
The endangered cattle germplasm resources of the snowy plateau must not be lost. Relevant state departments and Tibet and Chongqing have taken urgent action to implement rescue protection through in vivo protection, somatic cell conservation, and cloning and restoration technologies.
Starting in February 2023, Tibetan endangered cattle will undergo cloned embryo transfer at the Chongqing Beef Cattle Breeding Farm in Yunyang County. Breaking through the technical problems of cloning plateau cattle breeds, the project team recently successfully cloned 4 camphorwood cattle and 4 Ngapoi Jiajia bulls to ensure the continuation of endangered cattle bulls.
Tibetan camphor cattle (top) and Ngapi Jiasa cattle (bottom). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Shiping
Why choose to clone in Chongqing Yunyang?
At present, Tibet's local cloned cattle are not qualified for the time being. The experts who carried out the cloning technology research chose Yunyang County, which has similar climate and topographical conditions to Zhangmu Town, where Zhangmu cattle are produced, and at the same time, there is a breeding cattle breeding farm in the local area, which has strong technical force to ensure the software and hardware conditions required for cloning.
A responsible person of a relevant department of Chongqing Municipality said that Chongqing Municipality has long helped and supported Tibet's social and economic development and is willing to provide active support for resource protection.
The latest "information" is that it is planned to return two cloned bulls each to Tibet this summer to replenish the urgently needed breeding bulls, and the other four will continue to be cultivated in Yunyang until they reach adulthood, where they will be trained and adjusted, and frozen semen will be collected and produced.
So, the question arises again: can the cloned cow born in low-altitude Chongqing survive and adapt to high-altitude Tibet?
Relevant officials and scientists of government departments said that they are studying and formulating corresponding follow-up safeguard measures for cloned cattle, which will gradually progress from lower altitudes to higher altitudes, so that they can gradually adapt to normal life on the plateau.
In the next step, we will overcome the problem of the lack of cloned cattle production system in the plateau environment, explore the local cloning of cows in Tibet, supplement and enrich the bloodline of the cattle herd, combine conventional breed preservation technology with cloning technology, and build a complete system for the protection and utilization of genetic resources of cattle breeds in the snowy plateau.
Source: Xinhua News Agency