The world's first cloned horse was born in Italy this spring and it was also the first case of a mammal giving birth to its own clone, according to a report to appear in the upcoming edition of Nature magazine.

The birth, which took place May 28, was the result of a project headed by Cesare Galli, the man who cloned bull Galileo and said it was possible to clone the record-breaking Italian trotter Varenne.

The project was carried out at the laboratory for reproduction technology at the Cremona Consortium for Livestock Raising in northern Italy.

The filly is named Prometea and weighed a normal 36 kg at birth. Mother and daughter are exactly identical as confirmed by DNA testing.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2003)