MAY 25, 2002

BEIJING - China's success in cloning several calves in eastern Shandong province earlier this year has led many to clamour for the inevitable: Use the technology to save endangered species, particularly the country's prized giant pandas.

The calls, ushered by leading Chinese scientist Chen Dayuan, have reignited a furious debate in the country with detractors questioning the need to plough valuable funds into an uncertain technology.

Professor Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology, who led the Shandong cattle cloning programme, is a staunch advocate of using the technology to save pandas.

He claimed that there were only fewer than 1,000 of them left in the wild and cloning is a way to prevent pandas from extinction.

But Professor Pan Wenshi, a world-renowned panda ecologist and director of Beijing University's Panda Research Centre, is vehemently opposed to the cloning of pandas for several reasons.

First, statistical evidence attests to the success of artificial insemination, so Prof Pan believes that efforts should be devoted to this, not cloning.

Secondly, only through the conservation of the animals' natural habitat - bamboo groves - can the genetic diversity of pandas be preserved. Cloning does not allow for diversity, he explained.

'We must preserve the best combination of genes. This can only be achieved in the wild. Endangered species should be protected in their natural ecosystems, and not as cloned specimens to satisfy the curiosity of zoo-goers,' he said.

Thirdly, female pandas are not suitable as surrogate mothers because for cloning to be successful, the fertilised egg needs to be implanted onto the uterus' wall within hours to a few days, but this process usually takes 40 to 120 days in the animals.

Using other animals such as black bears, dogs, cats and even rabbits as surrogate mothers would only compound the difficulties.

Yet, cloning guru Chen remains undaunted. At a seminar on 'cloning and ethics' held in Beijing on Thursday, he claimed he is just one step away from cloning pandas successfully.

'If everything goes right, the world's first cloned giant panda cub will be produced within one or two years,' he was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

He said a team led by him has cultivated a panda embryo based on a rabbit egg, and has successfully implanted it onto a cat's womb.

While admitting that animal cloning, especially trans-species cloning, is still in its infancy, Prof Chen holds high hopes that the technology can be perfected.

However, Professor Xu Rigan, an embryologist and president of the University of Inner Mongolia, told the Beijing Youth Daily early this year: 'Especially pertaining to giant pandas, cloning technology is still at a very basic experimental stage.

'So, success is virtually impossible.'

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