Thursday, November 3 2005 11:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: The world's first Boer goat cloned from embryonic cells has been born in north China's port city of Tianjin, which would further boost animal husbandry technology, Chinese scientists said today (Nov 03, 2005).

The cloned lamb was born yesterday (Nov 02, 2005) at the Tianjin veterinary research institute, a research body that has been engaged in the embryo cloning project since 2002.

"The birth of the cloned lamb has laid a solid basis for us to further exploit the cloning technology to boost the animal husbandry, biomedicine and pharmaceutical industries," head of the institute, Ding Boliang said.

The institute introduced over 300 pure-bread Boer goats for the cloning programme in 2002 and has since built a genetic database of the goats.

Boer goat, a species originating in South Africa, grows extremely fast and yields more mutton than ordinary goats or sheep. An adult Boer goat weighs about 100 kilograms and can provide more than 40 kilograms of mutton.

Experts say the goat brings more than delicious dishes to the Chinese dinner table; it may also help millions of redundant rural labourers make a living.