Cloned India buffalo, world’s first, is dead

Indian scientists at the National Dairy Research Institute at Karnal (Haryana) have successfully produced the world’s first buffalo clone using a brilliantly simplified version of the hand-guided technique for genetic duplication.

Though Samroopa, which means “identical” in Hindi, the five-day-old calf succumbed to an incurable lung infection on Wednesday night, scientists say her birth last week is a major cause for celebration. They say this could herald a quantum jump in milk production in countries like India, where buffaloes account for over 50 per cent of the total milk.

“The birth of the calf has proved that the technique works successfully and could be duplicated indefinitely,” Dr S.K. Singal, a senior researcher on NDRI’s animal biotechnology centre, told this newspaper.

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