Eco warriors say rare cattle safe

By Keith Perry

science reporter

Eco warriors opposed to genetic engineering say the world's rarest cow and her cloned calf do not have a price on their heads.

Environmental group the Wild Greens said it would not target the ageing Enderby Island cow, Lady, and her calf, Elsie, in its protests about genetic experiments on crops and livestock.

This week organisers of the Royal Easter Show in Auckland ordered 24-hour security to protect the cows after the AgResearch Centre at Ruakura said it had received threats from campaigners.

AgResearch veterinary surgeon Jacqui Forsyth wrote to show organisers, saying: "Ruakura has become a potential target for an anti-transgenic group called Wild Green. As a result, Ruakura and the animals are under 24-hour guard.

"The group and similar protest groups have been targeting the clones and transgenic animals, plants etc. As Elsie is a clone and it will be noted on her pen, it is imperative that the rare breeds people, security and police are aware of the risk."

But last night Wild Greens spokesman Nandor Tanczos said the cows were safe.

"The issue that we are campaigning about is that genetically engineered experiments are going on in this country without any public input or consultation covering the long-term ethical and safety issues.

"This cow was cloned in an effort to save the breed from extinction and is outside that campaign. There's no bounty on Elsie's head. The show organisers can relax."

Dr David Wells of AgResearch, who headed the cloning programme, said he was pleased to hear there was no threat. "We are more than happy to put the cows on public display to see this particular application of cloning.

"But because they are very rare and valuable animals, security is justified on that basis alone."

Elsie made world headlines when she became the world's first bovine calf to be cloned from an adult cell.

This month scientists at Ruakura said the number of seaweed-eating Enderby island cattle saved from extinction had grown again, with the cloing of four more calves from Lady, once the sole survivor of the breed.

The cows, dropped on Enderby Island in 1849 to provide food for shipwrecked sailors, were almost wiped out after being culled under Department of Conservation policy for the management of the island.

Dr Wells said the next stage in the programme was to use the frozen sperm from the culled Enderby Island bulls to inseminate the latest clones when they reach puberty.

Earlier this month the Wild Greens destroyed an experimental crop of genetically modified potatoes at the Institute of Crop and Food Research near Christchurch, saying the potatoes contained toad genes.