First Cloned Champion Horse Is Alive and Well

By Roland Piquepaille

There are many articles in the press today about the cloning of a champion endurance horse named Pieraz. I want to give my "Best Title of the Month" award to News24, in South Africa, for "Castrated horse becomes dad." This is true, Pieraz, as most endurance horses, those engaged in races of up to 50 kilometers, was castrated. But its clone, created by Italian and French scientists, and called Pieraz-Cryozootech-Stallion, will be different from the original horse. It might not be able to race, but it will be put to stud to breed other horses within two years. Read more...

Before going further, here are two pictures of the champion horse and his young clone (Credit: Cryozootech).

On the left, you can see Pieraz, ridden by Valerie Kanavy, who was the owner and the trainer of the horse. On the right, Eric Palmer, from Cryozootech, is talking with Pieraz's clone.

You might also want to look at this short video of Pieraz-Cryozootech-Stallion (RealAudio format, 71 seconds).

Now, here are some details from an article by New Scientist, "First clone of champion racehorse revealed."

Like most endurance racehorses, Pieraz was castrated young and so cannot breed. The idea of cloning him was to "recreate his testicles" for breeding purposes, says Eric Palmer of Cryozootech, a company based in Paris, France, which supported Galli's latest cloning work.

[Notes: Cesare Galli produced both horses at the University of Bologna in Cremona, Italy; and Cryozootech is based in Sonchamp, near Paris.]

"The plan is to make this horse a stallion," says Palmer, and the clone will be mature enough to breed within two years. But although the new clone is Pieraz's genetic twin, he says there is no guarantee that it will perform as well as the champion racehorse. Environmental factors could be crucial.

Cryozootech has ambitious plans, and wants to clone more than thirty other horses specialized in dressage or jumping. But it's not that simple. The new foal was the only one which came alive, from 34 embryos implanted into 12 foster mothers.

In "Champion endurance horse cloned," BBC News gives other details, picking some facts from this Cryozootech press release (PDF format, 1 page).

The new clone, called Pieraz-Cryozootech-Stallion, was born on 25 February, weighing 42kg. He will not be used for competition himself, but will instead make his living siring new generations of horses.

Pieraz, the donor of the genetic material used to create the foal, reached the top of his equestrian discipline in 1994 and 1996. He is owned by the Kanavy family of Fort Valley, Virginia, US. In 2002, Valerie Kanavy heard about cloning and immediately liked the idea that her champion could transmit his qualities to future generations despite being castrated.

And it is obvious that these scientists want to preserve the genetic heritage of this champion and of some others. They will probably make some money too.

What do you think about this cloning experiment?

Update on April 16, 2005: If you understand French, France-Info, an all-news radio station, is airing a short audio segment about this clone, with an interview with Eric Palmer, under the name "Pieraz : le deuxième cheval cloné au monde."

Here are two links to the text version and to the audio one (RealAudio format, 1 minute and 55 seconds).

Sources: Various websites, April 2005

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