By Fabiana Frayssinet
SAO PAULO, Mar 10 1997 (IPS)

Scottish embyrologists startled the world when they produced Dolly, the clone of a sheep, and U.S. scientists followed this by cloning monkeys. Now the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences in the University of Sao Paulo are working intensively on cloning a cow.

Using a technique similar to that used on the monkeys, Brazilian scitists, supported by the Brazilian Agricultural Investigation Company (EMBRAPA), have started on the cloning process by extracting the eggs from an adult cow, chosen from the best of the nelore breed.

“We suck the eggs out with the help of ultrasound images. Then in the laboratory we extract the nucleus from the egg and there we have nucleus-free eggs to serve as receptors of a cell from another embryo which will be fertilised either naturally or in vitro,” veterinary surgeon, Jose Antonio Visentin told IPS.

A specialist in animal reproduction in the University of Sao Paulo, Visentin said the nelore breed was chosen for the experiment as it wass the most productive beef animal.

“The aim is to multiply the best animals. In order to carry out the cloning we are going to choose the best males and females and then clone the embryos,” he said.

University researchers are fired by ideals like the eradication of hunger in Brazil. “The objective of biogenetics is the well- being of humanity. We could clone an exceptional animal, a milk cow or a beef animal, obtaining more milk or meat than from a biotechnologically inferior animal,” said Lilia Tavares, a postgraduate student of animal reproduction and cloning.

“There are already too many people. There is no reason to want to multiply human beings. However, we do need more animals and plants to improve people’s standard of living,” added Visentin.

And along with the food they could offer, cloned animals could provide invaluable contributions to the phamaceutical field.

“If an animal produces some substance which can be used in medicines for people, we could make an indefinite clone of this animal in order to have a constant biotechnique,” said the specialist.

As in other countries, Brazil also has been affected by the appearance of Dolly the sheep , and the possibility of making other genetically identical animals has been accomnpanied by questions over over applying the same technology to human beings.

Minister of Science and Technology, Jose Israel Vargas, has stated he is studying the idea of a biosecurity law to ban the genetic manipulation of human cells.

Scientists, however, were concerned over regulations being introduced because of the fear of legal and ethical implications of their technology.

“When the technique of in vitro fertilisation was developed there was also a great ethical discussion on the issue, but in this case it was a method exclusively destined to aided human reproduction. In the case of cloning this objective does not exist,” said Luiz Quiroz, researcher at the EMBRAPA Genetic and Biotechnology Resources Centre.

And Visentin summed up the feeling among scientists declared his belief that “the laws must nÿ
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By Fabiana Frayssinet

SAO PAULO, Mar 10

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