Prometea (born May 28, 2003), a

Haflinger The Haflinger, also known as the Avelignese, is a breed of horse developed in Austria and northern Italy (namely Hafling in South Tyrol region) during the late 19th century. Haflinger horses are relatively small, are always chestnut with flaxen ...

foal, is the first cloned

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

and the first to be born from and carried by its cloning mother. Her birth was announced publicly on August 6, 2003. Born 36 kilogram after a natural delivery and a full-term pregnancy in Laboratory of Reproductive Technology, Cremona,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, At 2 months old, Prometea weighed The

ethics of cloning In bioethics, the ethics of cloning refers to a variety of ethical positions regarding the practice and possibilities of cloning, especially human cloning. While many of these views are religious in origin, some of the questions raised by cloning a ...

on horses still needs to be fully explored but there are concerns of genetic variability. Cloning also allows for conservation of strong genetics and could be used for conserving specific equine lines that may need additional animals in the population. Some registries will not allow cloned horses to be entered. The name "Prometea" is the feminine form of Prometeo ("

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning " forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, kn ...

" in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Science

The horse is the seventh

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

to be cloned yet. Dr. Cesare Galli and others at the lab experimented with 841 reconstructed embryos; of the 14 viable embryos, four were implanted in surrogate mothers - only that of Prometea succeeded in being born. Prometea was born to her twin mother who her cloning cells originated from.

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

was also undertaking a horse-cloning project when the Italian team first succeeded. Horse cloning like Prometea could eliminate the problem of champion

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

geldings. The Jockey Club of North America

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

Horses has proclaimed, however, that it will allow no cloned horse in their races. Although horses are not threatened with extinction or other major problem now, cloning may create less genetic diversity among horses by using these horses to breed. This increases the life time of one breeding set of genetics resulting in less variability in a population. In conservation biology, there are concerns related to the lack of genetic diversity that allows for continuation of the species through genetic variation.

References

World's first cloned horse is born
''New Scientist''. Referenced March 6, 2011.

''Science Now''. Referenced March 6, 2011.
photo
2003 animal births Cloned horses {{horse-stub