Cloned cow "Duo Duo" gave birth to a male calf on Friday in Caoxian County, east China's Shandong Province.

The calf, "Yin Long", is 80 centimeters tall, 90 centimeters long, measures 85 centimeters round the chest, and weighs 49 kilograms.

All the physiological indices of Yin Long, including heartbeat rate, body temperature and breath, are all normal, according to the technicians.

Wei Qiang, head of the technician team, said the birth of Yin Long is further evidence that cloned cattle have normal reproductive abilities. Yin's father is from Canada.

Since 2001, scientists from the Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Science have conducted researches on somatic cell cloning in Caoxian County.

Fourteen somatic cell-cloned calves, independently bred by China, were born there in early 2002, and five of them are still alive, including "Duo Duo".

Another of them, "Fu Fu", gave birth to a male calf on Wednesday, becoming the first among the five to successfully reproduce. The other three cloned cows are expected to give birth in the near future.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2004)