Fowler Associates Labs

Did Lightning Kill "Millie?"

By: Elizabeth Nelson

ABC News recently reported the tragic end for the cloned cow known as "Millie." Millie (short for millennium) was found dead in her pasture at the University of Tennessee's Experiment Station in Knoxville. Researchers are unsure of the exact cause of death, but have admitted that Millie's death may have been from being stuck by lightning!

Millie was only nine months old and was cloned from a top milk producing Jersey cow. She has the distinction of being the first clone of a Jersey cow and the first using standard cell-culturing techniques.

Another possible cause of death may be that Millie ate poisonous weeds; however, other cows in the same pasture seem unaffected. Patricia Clark, spokeswoman for the university's Institute of Agriculture says of Millie: "She was healthy and fine and happy."

The cloning seems to have played no part in this tragic and untimely death.