Cloning remains an unpredictable process. A study by the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research shows that fewer than 10 percent of cloned embryos survive to birth. Those that make it are often born oversize and die earlier than normal. The animals listed here represent a sample of the roughly 15 cloned species.
Sheep (“Dolly”)
7/1996
Died of lung
disease at 6 1/2
Healthy
Bull
8/1999
Chinese Goat
6/2000
Died in one day
(abnormal lung development)
Gaur, or wild ox
1/2003
Died in two days
(from poor diet)
Banteng, or Asian wild ox
4/2003
Born twice
normal size; euthanized
Healthy
African wildcat
4/2003
Healthy
Mule
5/2003
Healthy
Horse
5/2003
Healthy
Deer
5/2003
Rats
9/2003
One died soon
after birth; two are healthy