World's first cloned racehorse
22 April 2005
Meet 'Pieraz-Cryozootech-Stallion', a little foal with a remarkable pedigree. Pieraz 2, as he is known, is the first ever clone of a champion endurance racehorse, bred to preserve its prize-winning genes.
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Pieraz 2 meets the world's press.
Image: Giovanna Lazzari LTR-CIZ
Pieraz 2 is a genetic copy of Pieraz, an endurance racehorse who was world champion in 1994 and 1996. The original Pieraz could not father any foals as he was castrated at the age of three - common practice for competing horses.
Now Pieraz 2's creators hope that his
champion genes can be passed down to further generations, once he is old enough to breed.
champion genes can be passed down to further generations, once he is old enough to breed.
Cesare Galli with the foal he created.
Image: Giovanna Lazzari LTR-CIZ
'The scope at this stage is to use the clone of a castrated champion for reproduction, in this way we are sure that he will transmit the same genes to the offspring.'
Cesare Galli, cloning expert, University of Bologna, Italy
Cesare Galli, cloning expert, University of Bologna, Italy
A sample of skin cells was taken from the original horse and frozen in liquid nitrogen in 2002. Later, the nucleus from one cell was injected into a horse egg cell whose own DNA had been removed. Then the embryo that developed was implanted into a surrogate mother.
This is a first in the competitive world of horse racing, but the basic technique is not new - it is the same as the one used to create Dolly the sheep back in 1996.
DNA is removed from an egg cell.
Image: Roslin Institute
'The basic technique is the same in all species, you transfer a nucleus to an egg cell, as it was done with frogs in the sixties.'
Cesare Galli
Cesare Galli
The same team of Italian scientists created the world's first cloned horse, Prometea, two years ago, but she was not cloned from a champion.
Pieraz 2 was specifically born to enable breeding from a valuable but castrated champion. Cesare Galli is already building up a 'stable' of samples containing cells from winning show-jumpers and dressage horses, the first steps towards an industry of superior horse clones.
Prometea was the world's first horse clone when she was born in 2003.
Image: Giovanna Lazzari LTR-CIZ
'The thoroughbred racehorse already has a very restricted gene pool and there would be very serious implications for the long term welfare of the thoroughbred were the gene pool to be reduced further as a direct result of cloning or artificial insemination.'
Paul Struthers, The Jockey Club
Paul Struthers, The Jockey Club
So will Red Rum race again? Cloned horses would not be allowed to compete in racing in the UK, and neither are any horses created by artificial insemination. Today's racehorses are all created the good old-fashioned way.
Punters won't be seeing clones at the races any time soon.
Image: The Jockey Club
'The racing world as a whole sees any move towards cloning as going against the grain of what any sport is built on, namely the degree of unpredictability about the outcome of an event, whether it be a mating or a race.
'The International Stud Book Committee rules on these matters and their annual meeting is the forum where matters like this are discussed and policy agreed. At the moment there is absolutely no prospect of the current ruling being amended.'
Paul Struthers, The Jockey Club
Paul Struthers, The Jockey Club
Paul Struthers of The Jockey Club, which regulates British racing.
Image: The Jockey Club
Although banned from regular racing, cloned horses could compete in endurance racing, dressage, showjumping, three-day-eventing, polo and carriage horse racing.
But even with a champion's genes, there's no guarantee that a clone would do as well as the original. 'It is likely that the performances will not be the same for several reasons, including environmental factors and training.'
Cesare Galli
Cesare Galli
There's more to making a champion than just genetics.
Not everyone agrees with research to clone racehorses. A lot of embryos have to be created to produce a single healthy foal, and the majority don't make it. Although scientists are improving their technique all the time, Pieraz 2 is the only successful birth out of three pregnancies from 34 embryos implanted into 12 surrogate mares.
The success rate is improving with time: 15 per cent of the embryos created this time were suitable for implantation, compared with only 3 per cent when Prometea, the world's first cloned horse, was produced in 2003.
Cloning is a costly and delicate procedure.
Image: Roslin Institute
Is cloning cruel?
Scientists have learned from cloning many different species that clones can suffer health problems in later life. Some animal rights groups believe it is always inhumane to clone animals.
'It takes several hundred attempts to produce a single live foal. That means many foals will die inside their mother or be born with severe deformities in order to produce one live foal.'
Andre Menache, Scientific Consultant to Animal Aid
Andre Menache, Scientific Consultant to Animal Aid
One live clone is the result of many failed attempts.