Pathology of cloned bovine neonates

Author(s)

Caio Rodrigues dos Santos

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ/SBD)
• Defense date: 2008-09-08

Examining board members

Paulo César Maiorka; Renée Laufer Amorim; Frederico Azevedo da Costa Pinto

• Advisor: Paulo César Maiorka

Abstract

Cloning or Nuclear Transfer (NT) allows generation of identical organisms. Innumerous applications of NT in veterinary and human medicine have been described. The success of cloning bovine, ovine, caprine and swine confirms the utility of NT in clonal expansion of valuable animals with high zootechnical performance. Many articles show that there is an important embryonal and neonatal loss of cloned animals, in which malformations of organs and alteration of size and weight are the most frequent problems described. This work aims to clarify, through morphological evaluation, the main alterations found in neonatally dead cloned bovines, using biometric rates of organs and evaluation of those that present any alteration. This work was conducted at the Tambaú Farm, São Paulo State, Brazil, from 2004 to 2008, and 13 bovine cloned by NT, male and female, belonging to Nelore and Simental breeds, aging from 01 to 19 days of life. The weight of animals and organs were registered and also morphological, histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses were performed during this work. The alterations of size and morphology of the animals and organs were the most frequent problems found in our study, referred to as abnormal offspring syndrome that describes morphological alterations such as gigantism, present in 92,3% of necropsied animals of this study. It is very important to identify and describe these abnormalities, by morphological, immunohistochemical approach aiming a better characterization of the problems related to cloning procedure, and also to contribute to the development of neonatal medicine bovines. (AU)