My TransOvaLog In
Jun 20, 2024
by Diane Broek
Although it would be a great idea, the simple answer is NO. Since a cloned animal is a genetic twin to the donor, it will be the same sex. You will get a cloned calf, piglet, lamb, or kid that is a genetic match (genomics included) to the genetic donor.
That being said, there is a situation in which we can change things up a bit. Anything that happens after the birth event is basically a “do-over” with a cloned animal. If the genetic donor was castrated, if they acquired a disease, if they sustained an injury…. “DO OVER” with the cloned baby.
In the case of a castrated male, the cloned calf, piglet, lamb, or kid will be a not only a male, but an INTACT male. In this case, you can produce a male capable of semen production from your elite steer, barrow, or wether.
However, the cloned animal will now have the influence of testosterone and may grow up to look slightly different than the original castrated version, but the genetics are the same. The risk with cloning a castrated male is that you do not know if that animal was ever capable of producing quality semen in adequate amounts.
Do Trans Ova Genetics cloning clients do this type of cloning all the time? Yes. Do most of the animals cloned from a castrated male, produce viable semen as adults? Yes. But there is the occasional animal that does not. Most likely because the original animal would not have produced semen had they not been castrated.
The other situation where we can change things up a bit is in the case of an animal that has acquired a disease after the birth event – Johne’s Disease, Leukosis, etc. are just several of the situations we deal with regularly. The cloned animal will not present with those diseases provided they are gestated and nursed by free recipients. For this reason, we routinely test our recipients for RN, BVD, BLV, Johnes, Anaplasmosis, and Neospora before embryos are implanted into them.
For more information on cloning, visit our livestock cloning page or past cloning blog posts.