Dear Departed Dolly:
The world’s first animal to be cloned from an adult cell, Dolly the sheep, was euthanased following a diagnosis of progressive lung disease - just six and a half years after her birth.
“Sheep can live to 11 or 12 years of age and lung infections are common in older sheep, particularly those housed inside.”
I have no doubt that this will crop up on a number of blogs in the coming days, and that speculation will abound. The anti-gene-anything types will be saying “told you so” - crying on about premature aging of course. Not that it isn’t highly likely that some sort of genetic flaw(s), rather than natural forces, wasn’t at play here - esp. given that earlier this year she had been reported to be suffering from arthritis.
Although unfortunate, this is not a death-knell to this particular field of study. The accomplishment was after all a ‘first’, and apart from securing handsome grants for future research, scientists’ study of Dolly surely contributed greatly to our knowledge and understanding in the field. I wonder if the sheep from whom Dolly was cloned is still alive?
