US boffins speed up reproduction


20 August 1998


US boffins speed up reproduction

PROFESSOR Ziangzhong Yang and colleagues from the University of Connecticut have successfully managed the birth of two calves when their mother was just 11 months old.

He told a meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction the technique would reduce the time to create herds of genetically altered animals.

He collected eggs from the ovaries of a two-month-old calf and then matured and fertilised them in the laboratory. The viable embryos were carried to term by surrogate mothers. Another pre-pubescent heifer became a mother of four last month.

Prof Yang claims he has simplified the retrieval of eggs so that it is possible to collect up to 1000 eggs per year.

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