Local scientists say they have successfully reproduced a cow using somatic cells.

The team led by Professor Park Se-pil at Jeju National University's Stem Cell Research Center said Wednesday that after two years it had successfully reproduced a Jeju black cow, which is an endangered species, after extracting the somatic cells from the ear of a black cow that was slaughtered due to old age.

The team injected the somatic cells into an ovum without a nucleus to make a cloned fertilized egg. The egg was then placed in the womb of a surrogate cow, which gave birth to the black cow last September.