Chinese scientists have successfully cloned two goats from somatic, or adult cells taken from a four-year-old genetically modified goat, a procedure which was listed as one of the nation's top-10 scientific research discoveries of 1999.

Researchers injected the nuclei of granulous cells taken from on the ovary of the donor black female goat into enucleated oocytes of a group of white goats.

In the lab, the re-constructed eggs developed into embryos, which were then implanted into surrogate mother goats. At a result, two lambs were created by this nuclear transfer technology, and they are also female and black, the same as the donor goat.

This success was jointly achieved by a research institute under the China Academy of Sciences and Yangzhou University in Jiangsu Province.