US scientists clone a mule called Idaho

Scientists have created a new Dolly the Sheep - but this time it is Idaho the Mule.

Scientists have created a new Dolly the Sheep - but this time it is Idaho the Mule.

Idaho is the very first member of the horse family to be cloned and the first sterile animal to be cloned.

Dolly was the first mammal ever to be cloned from a single adult cell.

Idaho's creators at the University of Moscow in Idaho, in the United States, hope that as well as paving the way to cloning horses, he will shed new light on the causes of certain human cancers.

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The team, led by Professor Gordon Woods, believe calcium is the key to why equine animals have proved impossible to clone in the past.

It may also provide an explanation for why horses are much less likely to die of cancer than humans - especially prostate cancer.

Idaho was born on May 4th after being successfully cloned from a 45-day-old mule foetus.

PA