第一头濒危动物克隆体若亚在生下来两天后于星期三死亡。这头白肢野牛(原产于东南亚的野牛)在生下来时看起来很健康,但一天后受到一种在普通小牛群中很典型的致命的病菌感染。 资助这项工程的位于马萨诸塞州Worcester的高级细胞技术公司（Advanced Cell Technology (ACT)）的副总裁Robert Lanza说，若亚的死亡与克隆过程无关，高级细胞技术公司将继续用白肢野牛和其它的濒危动物作实验。

高级细胞技术公司的科学家们是这样把若亚制造出来的:将一头公牛的皮肤细胞和一头去核的母牛卵母细胞融合,然后,在Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center, Iowa ，44个胚胎细胞被转移到32头充当母亲的母牛体内。结果8头牛怀孕了，其中有5头流产了(流产在克隆动物过程中是常见的)，又有2头在经过组织检查后提前终止了怀孕。在10月份，科学家们报告说，牛胎儿发育正常，可望在11月份生下来。在预产期到来前，科学家们得知白肢野牛的怀孕期比他们想象的要长，这样，若亚一直延迟到上周才生下来。

许多克隆动物在刚生下来时都面临着严重的健康问题，包括肺部毛病。有的超大超重。但是若亚在生下来时体重36公斤，健康状况良好，体态正常。经过兽医检查,从若亚的机敏度、饮食和其他因素分析，若亚的健康状况在新生小牛群中属上乘，在最好的3%以内。在12小时内，若亚开始站立、走路——这意味着若亚是健壮的，没有超大超重。

但是，在它生下来24小时后，若亚得了痢疾，即通常所说的腹泻。医生很快认为是痢疾梭菌――一种常见病菌所致，并对若亚进行了抗菌抗毒处理。尽管如此，若亚还是在第二天死了。爱荷华州立大学动物病理学家Pat Halbur说，痢疾梭菌感染在新生牛群中是常见的事。兽医Damiani博士说：“若亚的死太突然，在我星期二离开的时候，若亚四处走动，还有点难对付。”

若亚的死并没有使公司放弃克隆濒危动物的计划，Damiani 介绍说，公司将继续用白肢野牛作实验。Lanza告诉我们，在几个月内，公司将着手克隆bucardo的计划，bucardo是一种西班牙山羊。克隆bucardo是从这个物种仅存的个体中提取细胞进行克隆，克隆山羊比克隆野牛要快，也容易些，因为克隆山羊的研究已经取得成功，还有，山羊的孕期只有5个月，而野牛的孕期是10个月。Lanza预言，到夏末或早秋，我们就会有一只活泼的小山羊。

【原文】The first clone of an endangered species died Wednesday, two days after its birth on 8 January. The baby gaur--a wild ox native to Southeast Asia--seemed healthy at birth but a day later developed a typically fatal bacterial infection common among calves. The death "appears to be totally unrelated" to the cloning procedures, says Robert Lanza, vice president of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester, Massachusetts, the company that sponsored the project. ACT is ready to try again with gaur and other endangered animals, Lanza says.

Scientists at ACT produced the animal, named Noah, by fusing skin cells from a male gaur with cow eggs from which the nucleus had been removed. Forty-four embryos were then transferred into 32 surrogate mother cows at Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center, Iowa. Eight pregnancies resulted, five of which ended in miscarriage--common in cloning--and two fetuses were removed early for tissue examination. In October, the scientists reported that the fetuses seemed to be developing normally. That left Bessie with her calf, Noah, who was originally scheduled to be born by cesarean section in November. Shortly before the original due date, the scientists learned that gaur gestation is longer than they thought and postponed the birth until last week.

Many of the animals cloned to date have had serious health problems at or shortly after birth, including lung defects. Some have also been born abnormally large. But Noah, weighing in at 36 kg, initially had a clean bill of health. The C-section went smoothly, says Philip Damiani of ACT, and veterinarians who examined the newborn rated him in the top 3% of newborn cloned calves based on his alertness, eagerness to feed, and other factors. Within 12 hours, Damiani says, Noah was beginning to walk--a sign that he was strong and not oversized.

But about 24 hours after his birth, Noah developed diarrhea, often called scours. Doctors immediately suspected clostridium--a ubiquitous bacterium--and treated him with antibiotics and an antitoxin. Despite these efforts, Noah died the next day. Clostridial infections are a common problem in newborn calves, says veterinary pathologist Pat Halbur at Iowa State University in Ames. After such promising initial signs, "to lose him to scours is devastating," Damiani says. "When I left on Tuesday, he was walking around and even being a bit difficult to handle."

The death has not derailed company's program to clone endangered animals. They plan to try again with a gaur, says Damiani. And Lanza says that within a few months the company will embark on a project to clone the bucardo, a Spanish mountain goat, from cells taken from the last living member of the species. The bucardo project should be both faster and easier than the gaur, as researchers have had more success with cloning goats and the animals' gestation is only 5 months as opposed to 10 for a gaur. Predicts Lanza: "We could have live kids by end of summer or early fall."