DOLLY THE SHEEP — the first animal to be cloned from an adult cell — has been put down after developing a lung infection.

Dolly became the most photographed sheep in history after her birth was announced in 1997 by the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. She seemed to enjoy the media attention that surrounded her.

The decision to put her down was taken after a veterinary examination showed that she had a progressive lung disease, the institute said in a statement yesterday.

Dr Harry Griffin, the head of the institute, said: “Sheep can live to 11 or 12 years of age and lung infections are common in older sheep, particularly those housed inside.

“A full post-mortem is being conducted and we will report any significant findings.”

Dolly will be stuffed and put on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

She was cloned from the breast cell of a six-year-old ewe and was born on July 5, 1996. Her birth was only announced seven months later and was heralded as one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of the decade. But it also triggered furious debate about the ethics of cloning — a dispute that has deepened with claims of human cloning.

Dolly, a Finn Dorset named after the Country and Western singer Dolly Parton, had lambs of her own. She was bred on two occasions with a Welsh mountain ram called David, giving birth first to Bonnie in April 1998 and then to three more lambs in 1999.

There was always uncertainty whether Dolly was older than her years, because she had been cloned from adult cells. A form of arthritis was diagnosed in January last year.

The condition would usually be expected in older animals and started another debate about the risks of premature ageing in clones. Such questions have huge implications for the possible use of cloned body parts in medicine.

Professor Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created her, said the arthritis showed that their cloning techniques were inefficient. Some would argue that her age at her death — six — and the age of the ewe from which her cell was taken — also six — means that she was 12 years old when she died.

Dr Patrick Dixon, an expert on the ethics of human cloning, said that the nature of Dolly’s death would have a huge impact on the possibility of producing a cloned human.

“The real issue is what Dolly died from, and whether it was linked to premature ageing,” he said. “A key question is exactly what kind of progressive lung disease she has had and whether that can be related in any way to the cloning technology which produced her.”

The religious sect Clonaid has claimed to have cloned three human babies in the past six weeks, but scientists are unconvinced. Dr Dixon, said: “Whether or not you believe Clonaid’s claims, it seems inevitable that human clones will be born somewhere in the world this year.

“The greatest worry many scientists have is that human clones — even if they don’t have monstrous abnormalities in the womb — will need hip replacements in their teenage years . . . This is why Dolly’s health is so crucial.”

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