frozen embryo, marking a major breakthrough in Taiwan's artificial reproductive technology. COA officials said the birth of such a deer will help boost local deer farmers and increase the production of fresh deer antler velvet, an important ingredient in some Chinese medicines.
The COA reported that the deer was born April 16 and has grown to a weight of 10 kg.
Kang Hsien-jen, an assistant researcher at the COA's Kaohsiung Animal Propagation Station of the Livestock Research Institute, noted that researchers collected the embryo Nov. 24, 2005, seven days after it was inseminated, froze it and later implanted it into the uterus of a surrogate mother Aug. 9, 2006. The calf was born 257 days later.
Kang said the station staff were elated, believing it to be another breakthrough in their breeding technology after their first deer born through artificial insemination July 28, 2005. He noted that the frozen embryo technology will help improve the quality of the species and that the breeding technology will also help favor deer that can yield higher quantities of antler velvet.
Statistics showed that Taiwan has around 21,000 deer, with the Formosan sambar deer accounting for around 85 percent of the total.
Noting that deer antler velvet can fetch good prices in Taiwan, at between NT$1,000-NT$1,200 (US$30.3 US$36.36) per tael (around 38 g), he said the development of the breeding technology will be profitable.
Kang said the deer antler velvet each male deer can produce varies dramatically from between 20 taels and 326 taels per year.
"The number of male deer that have high velvet yields is small, " Kang said, adding that a good stud deer can sell for between NT$100,000 and NT$1 million.
Kang added that Taiwan needs around 80 tons of deer antler velvet a year, although it can only produce between 20 tons and 25 tons. Taiwan imports around five tons from New Zealand and relies on "parallel imports" for its remaining needs.
