Dr. Mahdi Hajian, Head of Embryology Department at Isfahan Campus of Royan Research Institute, made the announcement asserting “following successful cloning of Saanen and Alpine goats, we sought to clone a third one from Murcia-Granada breed.”
Imported from Spain, these types have no particular season for breeding and the females can come into heat at any time of the year and produce a significant amount of milk, said the Iranian scientists while highlighting main characteristics of Murciana goats.
“We managed to extract a sample tissue from the imported goat’s ear in order to obtain necessary stem cells,” noted Hajian.
We were able to extract a sample of the tissue of the ears of this goat to extract the cells, resulting in simulation of the third goat in Royan Research Institute in the central city of Isfahan, Iran.
Hajian said the goat had been born a month ago since when its conditions have been analyzed and investigated.
Referring to the characteristics of the three cloned goats, he said “each simulated goat has its own unique features; the first two ones produce high milk yields.”
“They yield about 3-4 kilos of milk while the newly-born one produces two to 2-3klograms of milk and instead is more resistant to heat.”
Murciana goat can even tolerate high temperatures in southern regions of Iran, emphasized the Iranian embryologist.
In 2006, Iran became the first Middle Eastern country to announce it had cloned a sheep, named Royana.
The effort is part of Iran's quest to become a regional powerhouse in advanced science and technology by 2025. In particular, Iran is striving for achievements in medicine and in aerospace and nuclear technology.
The cloning of sheep and other animals could lead to advances in medical research, including using cloned animals to produce human antibodies against diseases.
Royan Institute’s main aim in cloning the goat is to produce medicine to be used to treat people who have had strokes.
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