Scientists clone calf from slaughtered cow

ATLANTA -- Savoring a juicy, high-quality steak? Maybe someday you'll be able to order up a duplicate of the best piece of beef you've eaten.

Scientists at the University of Georgia have produced the first calf cloned from cells of a slaughtered cow, a breakthrough they say will allow cattle producers to select and clone the choicest beef from their stock.

The researchers on Thursday introduced K.C., a healthy female Angus-Hereford cross delivered earlier this week. Her genetic material was extracted from the kidney region of a cow two days after it was killed.

Until now, calves had only been cloned from live adult cows -- before the adults were slaughtered and their meat graded. But you can't tell how good a steak will taste until you kill the animal.

The Georgia researchers hope their work will one day allow cattle producers to take the best beef from their lines, extract cells from those carcasses and use it to stock their herds.

"There are a lot of animals that get processed every day, and there's a select few that are of the highest quality," lead researcher Steven Stice said. "That's what we want."

The research was conducted in laboratories at the university in Athens, in conjunction with scientists from ProLinia Inc., an Athens-based biotechnology company.

It will take more study -- and approval from the federal government -- before the technology could be used for beef for mass consumption. But the research is a critical step, outside experts said.

"It sounds like a good idea to me," said Randall Prather, a University of Missouri cloning expert. "You had 10,000 animals that went through, and you selected the best one."

He cautioned that it would be difficult to guarantee that the quality of the cloned cow would be exactly the same as that of its genetic parent. Differences in feed quality and other environmental factors could cause variations, he said.

Scientists say the procedure has implications beyond just producing a better burger.