Scientists help birth of world's first cloned calf with genes resistant to mad cow disease at Laiyong Agro-Science Institute, April 25, 2006

Chinese scientists say they have successfully cloned a calf with genes resistant to mad cow disease.

China's official news agency, Xinhua, reports Wednesday that scientists at the Laiyong Agro-Science Institute in eastern Shangong used transplant technology to introduce genes to the calf, which was cloned from the cells of an adult cow.

The scientists say more tests are needed to confirm that the procedure was a success.

Xinhah says the project was led by two professors, Dong Yajuan and Bo Xuejin, who performed China's first two successful cow cloning procedures in 2001.

Mad cow disease, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, is a fatal, degenerative disease that attacks the nervous system of adult cattle.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.