Huang Youjun, a research fellow with the Guangxi buffalo research institute, said with artificial insemination and embryo transfer, a cow had given birth in the institute a week ago, to twin buffaloes, one a Nili-Ravi purebred and the other a Crossbred Murrah, after 300 days of pregnancy.

No different-breed buffalo twins have ever been reported before, Huang added.

The calves were able to walk and suckle shortly after birth. The Nili-Ravi buffalo weighed 35 kilograms and the Crossbred Murrah 31 kilograms.

Huang explained his research group first artificially inseminated a cow using the sperm of a crossbred Murrah and then implanted the embryo of a Nili-Navi into the same cow, so that it was carrying two fertilized embryos and resulted in twins of two different breeds.

Before the embryo transfer, researchers carried out vitro fertilization of a Nili-Ravi ovum using Nili-Ravi sperm, which after incubation became an embryo.

"The technical difficulty lies in choosing the right moment to transfer the fertilized embryo of the different breed. It must be before the other blastula becomes embedded in the womb," Huang added.

The incubation of the blastula which would later develop into the embryo for transplant also created difficulties during the experiment, according to Huang.

Only two out of 100,000 buffaloes give birth to twins under natural conditions, according to experts.

The south of China is trying to develop milk industry by introducing the Nili-Ravi and Crossbred Murrah buffaloes which originate mainly in Pakistan and India.

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2002)