My TransOvaLog In
Jun 20, 2024
by Diane Broek
The simple answer to this question is yes, there are many situations where cloned animals perform better than their genetic donors.
Sometimes, male and female genetic donors acquire a disease or injury after the birth event. With a cloned animal, it can basically be a “do-over” and the situation does not occur provided that the animal is managed to prevent it.
A high genomic bull had a respiratory infection early in his life. He basically was what industry practitioners call a “lunger”, for most of his life.
The bull did not produce a lot of semen when he was of age, and the quality of that semen was poor. He died young, after only a year or two of production. When cloned, the cloned calf did not have respiratory issues. He grew up to produce large amounts of high-quality semen for years.
A female had to have a C-section to deliver her first calf. Scar tissue developed after the C-section affected her ability to produce embryos in ET and IVF. She never met her full potential for production of offspring through ART (assisted reproductive technology).
The owner produced four cloned calves, and they all entered IVF first as bred heifers, and then again after they had calves. They produced large amounts of embryos in both ET and IVF for many years, and since there were four of them, the owner could use many different bulls to sample as offspring sires.
There are certain negative disease testing requirements for donors or sires used for export programs. Many donors and sires have acquired disease titers that exclude them from export programs. These titers were acquired after the birth event.
Since disease titers for Johnes Disease, Bluetongue, Bovine Leukosis can exclude the shipment of semen or embryos from those donors, it previously would have been impossible to get embryos for export out of that genotype. Today, the animal can be cloned, and provided that the gestating recipients are clean, and the owner implements biosecurity programs to keep the animals clean throughout their lives, the cloned animals can produce the embryos and semen needed for export purposes.
The number one reason cloned animals can perform better than their genetic donors is in the case of an early death event for the genetic donor. Every week we receive tissue samples from young rock stars that die young for various reasons. Previously, those genetics would have been gone forever. Today, they are easily recreated so that the owner and the breed can benefit from the contributions that the outlier has the potential to make to the herd or the breed.
For more information on how Trans Ova Genetics can produce a genetic twin to your rock star, simply call 1-800-999-3586 and ask for a Customer Service Representative or Diane Broek. We would love to provide a solution problem situation by making the irreplaceable…..replaceable
Diane Broek
Advanced Technology Sales and Production Manager
For more information on cloning, visit our livestock cloning page or past cloning blog posts.