STELLENBOSCH: Superstar 9405 is dead.

The cow died yesterday after a week-long struggle to keep her alive following a scientific experiment that apparently went wrong.

The bovine, which made international headlines when she broke the world record last November by producing a staggering 111 litres of milk in one day, was the envy of dairy farmers and the object of fascination by scientists the world over.

One incredulous American scientist said textbooks would have to be rewritten to explain her.

On Monday last week, Superstar - formerly known as 9405 after the year and month in which she was born - was fit and healthy and produced 94 litres of milk in the morning.

That afternoon, scientist Dr D Barry and two students from the University of Stellenbosch came to take skin samples from her. An hour-and-a-half later she had collapsed, and yesterday she died.

Superstar's owner, Mr Ludwig van Deventer, was angry and despondent last night. "It's a bloody calamity. We've got people all around the country trying to determine what went wrong. Everyone's ducking and diving now, but the fact is they've killed a cow that was one in a million.

"Scientists from all over, even Japan, wanted to know about her," said Van Deventer from his Bloemendal farm. I opened my doors to the scientists, because they believed they could make a major discovery for the dairy world by studying her, but I said, 'Don't do anything that will affect her milk production or put her life in danger. I've paid a terrible price by being nice to these people."

Last Monday the Stellenbosch University team took skin samples from under Superstar's tail. Van Deventer said they had first injected her with a local anaesthetic.

"I don't know what those guys did, but she was in peak health that morning, and after they worked on her she went down. From then on she hardly produced a drop of milk."

Samples of Superstar have been sent all over the country for a post-mortem examination and the cause of death should be established this week.

Luckily, said Van Deventer, Supercow's sister Megacow, who produces even more milk, is still alive, but he's not allowing any scientists near her.

The Scottish scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep had started negotiations to set up research to clone Superstar.

- Melanie Gosling