Injaz ( ar, إنجاز, meaning "achievement"; born April 8, 2009- died 12 January 2020) was a female dromedary camel, credited with being the world's first cloned camel. Dr. Nisar Ahmad Wani, a reproductive biologist and head of the research team at the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, announced on April 14, 2009, that the cloned camel was born after an "uncomplicated"

gestation Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregna ...

of 378 days. The cloning project had the personal endorsement and financial support of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, and the emir of Dubai. Prior to this, there had been several unsuccessful attempts in the Emirate to clone a camel. Injaz was created from ovarian cells of an adult camel slaughtered for its

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

in 2005. The cells were grown in tissue culture and then frozen in

liquid nitrogen Liquid nitrogen—LN2—is nitrogen in a liquid state at low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about . It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, low viscosity liquid that is wide ...

. Afterwards, one of the cells was injected into a nucleus-removed oocyte of the surrogate camel, which were then fused with an

electric current An electric current is a stream of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is measured as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface or into a control volume. The moving pa ...

and chemically induced to initiate cell division. The resulting

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

was cultured for a week and implanted back into the surrogate camel's uterus. Twenty days later, its pregnancy was confirmed using ultrasound and monitored throughout the

gestation period In mammals, pregnancy is the period of reproduction during which a female carries one or more live offspring from implantation in the uterus through gestation. It begins when a fertilized zygote implants in the female's uterus, and ends once it ...

. After Injaz's birth, its DNA was tested at the Molecular Biology and Genetics Laboratory in Dubai and confirmed to be identical copies of the DNA of the original ovarian cells, proving that Injaz is a clone of the original camel. Camel racing is a lucrative industry in the UAE. Dr. Ulrich Wernery and Dr. Lulu Skidmore, commented that the camel cloning "gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk-producing camels in the future."

References

{{reflist Cloned animals Individual camels 2009 animal births 2020 animal deaths Individual animals in the United Arab Emirates