Researchers of National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in India have successfully cloned a female buffalo calf. The calf is named Lalima.
Lalima is NDRI’s seventh cloned calf. The institute had produced the world’s first cloned buffalo calf in 2009. Lalima was born by normal parturition and its weight at birth was around 36kg. The calf is in good health and weighs 42kg at present.
In Lalima’s case, the donor cell was taken from the ear of an “elite” murrah buffalo of institute’s livestock farm which produced 2,713kg milk in standard lactation period of 305 days. The calf was produced after standard gestation period without any assistance and had normal birth weight.
Known globaly for its high yield, a murrah buffalo produces up to 32kg of milk daily, almost double than that of an ordinary buffalo.
