Horse Plays Surrogate Mom to Rare Donkey
Wed Feb 6, 9:43 AM ET

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - An Australian horse gave birth to one of the world's most endangered breeds of donkey in a rare case of a mare carrying a pregnancy for a different species, Monash University said Wednesday.

The Poitou donkey embryo, created by artificial insemination, was placed in the mare because the donkey's biological mother had leg problems and veterinarians were not sure she could carry the foal to term.

"We had to trick the mare into thinking it was her own pregnancy," said Angus McKinnon, an honorary research fellow at Monash University's Institute of Reproduction and Development and guide for the horse's pregnancy.

The embryo from the Poitou, the world's largest and hairiest donkey, was put in a horse rather than a donkey because the foal would have been too large for any other type of donkey to carry.

"It's amazing. The foal's ears are as long as its head," McKinnon said, describing the three-week-old foal.

Monash said there are believed to be fewer than 200 registered Poitous in the world.

McKinnon said his was only the second group in the world after one in Britain led by Professor W R "Twink" Allen of the Equine Fertility Unit at Newmarket, to deliver a donkey from a horse.

"We were lucky," he told Reuters. "I think it's repeatable, but not necessarily at a 100 percent level."