The nation's first cloned calf born with underdeveloped eyes and a tail just 5cm long didn't make it to her sixth day, officials at the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute in Tainan said yesterday.
Hsubao (畜寶), born on Sept. 1, was widely seen as Taiwan's attempt to become a global player in genetic reproduction technology.
"Hsubao unfortunately died of unknown causes at around 11:50pm on Sept. 6," the institute's press release said yesterday.
The institute said that veterinarians have started an autopsy to study the development of Hsubao's internal organs and determine a cause of death.
The autopsy's findings will be available within two weeks, the institute's director-general Wang Cheng-taung (
Wang said that while Hsubao's death was a setback for genetic engineering in Taiwan, two cloned embryos had been successfully implanted into the wombs of full-grown cows and their deliveries were expected in late October and early next year, respectively.
"Taiwan's biotech studies still have a long way to go. We will take more precautions next time," Wang said yesterday, adding that the institute only started its cloning project two years ago.
When Hsubao was first born, researchers were overwhelmed by her healthy and fully-developed makeup -- excepting of course for her poorly developed eyeballs and short tail.
They said the calf represented a major breakthrough in Taiwan's effort to develop genetic reproduction technology for dairy cows.
"Hsubao, weighing in at 53g, had been on her feet the day after her birth and, to researchers' comfort, had a very good appetite," Wang said.
According to Wang, nearly 70 percent of cloned animals are born without deformities, but the first week of life is always the most critical period.
Hsubao began exhibiting symptoms of a fever as high as 40C starting on Tuesday and later lost her eyesight.
"The antipyretic didn't work on her fever. Hsubao suffered from breathlessness and tachycardia before she died on Thursday night," Wang said, saying veterinarians had done their best to save the calf.
Wang had previously suspected that Hsubao's fever might have been caused by a navel infection contracted during delivery, but he had not expected the infection to be life-threatening.
Some researchers yesterday suspected that Hsubao might have died of the navel infection.
Others, however, were pessimistic about Hsubao's chances of survival even before her birth, when her fetus was in an upside-down and abnormal position in her mother's womb, forcing her to be delivered by Cesarean section.
After the late but successful birth, Hsubao was overweight and, in addition to the navel infection and high fever, suffered blindness in both eyes and required constant care.
It took the scientists 39 failed attempts before they successfully took cells from a healthy full-grown cow and transferred its DNA into another full-grown cow's egg cells, one of which then developed into a viable embryo.
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