Money scarce for mule cloning project

MOSCOW, Idaho – A little more than a year ago, University of Idaho researchers managed to beat high-tech competitors around the world and successfully clone a member of the equine family.

But the feat – demonstrated by three healthy mules sharing the same DNA and cavorting around a pasture outside the UI lab – has failed to bring in big donations for the university.

In fact, scientists with the school’s Department of Agriculture said the department is struggling to obtain enough funding to continue its equine research.

“We were hopeful it might, but haven’t seen any so far,” said Dirk Vanderwall, assistant professor of animal veterinary science. “In general, it’s finding the funding for equine that’s tough.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is more interested in funding research on animals and plants used for human consumption, Vanderwall said, and the National Institutes of Health focuses mainly on human research.

But Gordon Woods, a professor of animal veterinary science at the university’s Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory, said their equine research will help provide solutions to human health problems.

Stallions do not get prostate cancer, and mares only rarely get breast cancer, he said. Horses have a much lower incidence of diabetes and other diseases that typically occur in older humans.

“We’re working to generate the funds to use the horse as a model to study human disease. So our hope is that we would be able to increase the efficiency of the cloning process to make it affordable for individuals and for us to fund the human research,” Woods said. “Is the horse cloning exciting research? It is. Is it important? In my opinion, it’s not as important compared to the human research.”

Gene Merrell, the university’s assistant vice president for research, said that at least for now, the University of Idaho will probably not boost funding. The school is in financial straits of its own, prompted by curtailed state funding and the financial scandal surrounding the failed University Place project in Boise.