Millie (short for Millennium), the nation’s first cloned Jersey calf and the nation’s first cloned animal using standard cell-culturing techniques, was born August 23, 2000, at 4:20 a.m. and died June 4, 2001, from the bacterial infection clostridium, a common occurrence in sheep, but rare in cattle. Millie had been vaccinated against clostridium, but for only two of the five known strains. At birth she was 32 inches long (crown to rump), 28 inches tall (at hips) and weighed 62 pounds. Her birth confirmed that scientists do not have to use patented cell preparation technology to clone adult animals.
Teresa was the somatic (ovarian) cell donor and Miss UT 1848 was the surrogate mother. Teresa was selected because of her excellent milk-producing record. Weighing 1,250 pounds, she was the top-producing Jersey in her age group in Tennessee in 1999, yielding 30,382 pounds of milk, at least 14,000 pounds of milk more than most Jerseys. Miss UT 1848 was an Angus heifer. Of an original 95 cloned embryos, Millie was the only calf carried to full term.
Researchers cloned a second cow, Emma, in 2002, to research the genetic basis of mastitis resistance among dairy cattle. Her name, in fact was an acronym for “experimental manipulation for mastitis abatement.” In November 2002 UT announced the success of producing ten clones of a Jersey cow—there were originally thirteen, but three failed to thrive.