A research mare at Texas A&M (TAMU) carrying a cloned foal recently lost her pregnancy. “We lost it at nine months of gestation via premature separation of the placenta and placentitis (placental infection), which we treated for three weeks before she slipped, said Katrin Hinrichs, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACT, professor in TAMU’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

A University of Idaho and Utah State University team made the announcement that they had produced the first successful equine clone–a mule–on May 29, 2003 (see article #4434 online): News of the first cloned horse, born at the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology near Cremona, Italy, was published Aug. 7, 2003 (see article #4560). The Texas fetus would have been the first cloned foal to be born in the United States. The University of Cambridge and Louisiana State University also have equine cloning projects, but have not announced success in their quest.

Hinrichs and other TAMU researchers aren’t sure if the failed pregnancy was because of an inapparent problem with the cloned fetus, or placentitis, which is a leading cause of pregnancy loss even with normal foals. The mare had a prior dystocia (difficult birth) that might have compromised her ability to harbor a pregnancy.

“The bottom line is, we don’t know the cause,” said Hinrichs. “The mare had signs of placentitis and the premature separation for about three weeks but we could see that the foal was still alive. Then when she slipped, we saw that the foal  had contracted front legs and an umbilical hernia, but grossly (visibly to the unaided eye) it was otherwise normal.” She added that the fetus had no malformations of its organs, but she hasn’t received a histology (cell and tissue study) report yet