China's second cloned calf was in a stable condition yesterday after hours of medical treatment by scientists at the Shandong Zhongda Animal Embryo Engineering Center in Jinan in China's Shandong Province.

The calf, named "Keke", began walking yesterday morning.

After a drop in temperature on Saturday evening, scientists feared that Keke might suffer the same fate as the country's first cloned calf, Weiwei.

Keke was born at 3:30 pm last Saturday in Jinan through a Caesarean section but initially had breathing difficulties.

Thankfully, however, Keke made its first "moo, moo" sound only two minutes after being born and drunk nearly 2 kilograms of milk within half an hour, scientists claim.

China's first cloned calf was born at 9:25 am on Friday, but was confirmed dead by scientists on Saturday. Weiwei only survived for 71 minutes.

The death of Weiwei was due to the abnormal development of its heart, which later made the calf's blood unable to flow smoothly, said the report publicized by scientists last Saturday.

According to Yu Zhongbo, general manager of the Shandong Zhongda Animal Embryo Engineering Center, which carried out the two embryo transplantations, Weiwei's birth was originally scheduled for January 27 but the surrogate mother cow showed signs of giving birth last Friday night.

Weiwei's mother gave birth to Weiwei also through a Caesarean section.

But Yu said that Weiwei's mother had been ill over the past month and received a transfusion, which affected Weiwei's health.

A 100 percent success rate in the cloning of animals can never be assured, said Yu.

At the center, 10 other pregnant cows, who are part of the scientific experiment, are expected to give birth to cloned calves in the days to come.

Prior to this, cloned cows have been born in Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province and Laiyang in Shandong Province. But their embryos were all imported from other countries.

Cattle cloning technology in the country will enter the stage of production in three to five years, said the experts.

(China Daily January 21, 2002)