Pieraz 2 trots in his enclosure while his birth mother grazes contentedly
Cloned foal is a racing cert for science
(Filed: 15/04/2005)
Pieraz is a horse who could revolutionise blood stock breeding, reports Roger Highfield, Science Editor. But he could have been British
A project to clone elite showhorses reported its first success yesterday with a cloned foal of Pieraz, an Arab endurance champion.
Pieraz 2 trots in his enclosure while his birth mother grazes contentedly
Although clones are banned from thoroughbred racing, a French scientist has stored tissue from champion showhorse geldings (castrated horses), for the creation of breeding stock.
The birth of the foal - Pieraz 2 - in Italy marks the first success for this commercial enterprise after almost three years of attempts by scientists in Cremona.
Prof Twink Allen, head of the team at the Equine Fertility Unit in Newmarket, the father-in-law of the jockey Frankie Dettori, welcomed the news but said it was a pity that, given that Britain had pioneered this technique with Dolly the sheep, his efforts to do the same had been blocked by the Home Office. "It was a British discovery and we are not allowed to use it commercially - as ever, the rest of the world cashes in on our scientific discoveries."
Prof Allen has been keen to clone horses in Britain since the birth of the first cloned horse - Prometea - announced in August 2003 by Prof Cesare Galli, of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies, Cremona, who also works with a French company, Cryozootech.
Yesterday, Prof Galli announced the birth of "Pieraz-Cryozootech-Stallion," or "Pieraz 2" for short, the second horse clone and the first produced for the purpose of creating a breeding animal from a sterile one.
"This new approach opens the possibility of preserving the genetic heritage of many exceptional horses whose genes are presently lost because of the castration," said Prof Galli.
"Prometea was just a scientific experiment and, scientifically, there's not much new about the new clone.
"But from an industry viewpoint, the new horse is the real thing."
Pieraz, an Arab horse, was the world champion of endurance races in 1994 (at Den Haag, Holland) and in 1996 (at Fort Riley, America) and is now retired in America in the stables of its owner, trainer and rider, Valerie Kanavy.
Endurance horse racing involves races of 50 miles or more across open country, with horses making regular "pit stops" for food, water and veterinary inspection
Pieraz's foal was born on Feb 25 this year, weighed
92 lb and is in good health, like Prometea the first cloned foal which is now two years old. "Repeatability of the technique is now proven," said Prof Galli.
The cells of Pieraz used for the cloning work were provided by Cryozootech, a company founded in 2001 by Dr Eric Palmer, horse IVF pioneer. Dr Palmer had been approached in 2002 by Valerie Kanavy, the owner of Pieraz, who was impressed by the idea that, in spite of having been castrated, her champion could transmit his qualities to future generations.
Dr Palmer's genetic bank of cells stored in liquid nitrogen now contains the cells of 30 different horses, each of them exceptional in its specific category. Among these are samples from ET, the world's top showjumper, and from Rusty, a top dressage horse.
The cells of Pieraz were passed to Prof Galli, whose company performed the cloning procedure and the embryo transfer that led to the clone birth.
The idea of cloning him was to "recreate his testicles" for breeding purposes, said Dr Palmer. "The plan is to make this horse a stallion".
The clone will be mature enough to breed within two years. But although the new clone is Pieraz's genetic twin, there is no guarantee that it will perform as well, Dr Palmer said.
Prof Twink Allen was at first told he could not clone horses at all but has now been given approval to apply to clone for scientific reasons. Yesterday, he accused the Government of capitulating to animal welfare groups.
Animal Aid, a British-based animal welfare lobby group, opposes cloning of horses on the grounds that cloned embryos are often deformed or grossly over-sized, and so should not be created for what they argue is a leisure activity.
However, Prof Allen points out that most deformities reported to date have been in cattle and sheep, while the two cloned horses and three cloned mules born so far have been healthy. This may be due to key differences in the way the placenta attaches to sheep and cattle compared with horses.