Dubai claims world's first cloned camel

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday claimed its own version of Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, after the birth of a cloned camel in Dubai this month.

"This is the first cloned camel in the world," said Dr Nisar Wani, researcher at the Camel Reproduction Centre.

Injaz, a female one-humped camel, was born on April 8 after more than five years of work by scientists at the Camel Reproduction Centre and the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, The National newspaper reported.

"This significant breakthrough in our research programme gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk producing camels in the future," Dr Lulu Skidmore, scientific director at the Camel Reproduction Centre, said in a statement.

Injaz, whose name means achievement in Arabic, is the clone of a camel that was slaughtered for its meat in 2005, the National said.

Scientists used DNA extracted from cells in the ovaries of the slain animal and put it into an egg taken from the surrogate mother to create a reconstructed embryo, it said.

Dolly was born in 1996 in Edinburgh in what was regarded as one of the world's most significant scientific breakthroughs, but was put to sleep in 2003.

(c) 2009 AFP