China's first heterogenous cloned Asian antelope born on Jan. 21 in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was in stable condition by press time, according to the Xinjiang Urban Daily.

Different from the homogenous reproduction of the world's first cloned sheep "Dolly", the newly born antelope is developed by combining an Asian antelope's body cell with a goat's egg cell.

In April 2003, researchers from the Xinjiang Jinniu Biology Co Ltd took a cell from ear of an Asian antelope in a zoo in Lanzhou City of northwest China's Gansu Province and put it in a goat egg cell to form an embryo.

The embryo was put in the uterus of a goat on Sept. 8, 2003 and four months later the cloned antelope was born in Xinjiang, 0.42m long, 0.35m high and weighing 2.32 kg.

Xu Yixuan, a researcher from the Xinjiang Jinniu, said the antelope was in healthy condition since birth with its weight increasing by 0.2 kg every day.

Asian Antelope, also dubbed as North Goat, is a national protected animal and mainly lives in northwest China's Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai and north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Researchers from the Xinjiang Jinniu are now working on the cloning of argals, an endangered animal in the country.

(China Daily February 1, 2004)