A South Korean company, RNL Bio, responsible for engineering “Snuppy”, the world’s first successfully cloned Afghan hound, are now making the technology available to the general public. Initial cloning was focused on the production of specialised service animals, however recent interest from grieving pet owners has pushed production in the direction of creating nine lives for Fido.
In the hope of achieving a full term pregnancy, and therefore an exact genotypic and phenotypic copy of an animal, numerous matured ova are impregnated with cells extracted from the donor tissue sample provided, and implanted into surrogate animals. However, despite this amazing advancement in the availability of genetic cloning technology there are still constraints to the potential success of each individual case.
In particular the quality of the tissue sample provided from a clients pet is paramount, as an indefectible and complete DNA sample is required to achieve cloning success. In addition, there is a considerably low success rate of pregnancy, approximately 25%, with majority of the implanted ova never surviving to term; and continual monitoring for complications in successfully produced clones is required as a result of the use of aged donor cells.
Whilst a successful clone may appear to be an exact replica of a much loved pet, Fido’s unique charm does not reside within his genes. However, who’s to argue if animal lovers no longer have to say goodbye to man’s best friend.
Written by: Dianah Butler (41392968)
Primary sources
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/19/earlyshow/living/petplanet/main3843862.shtml
Jang, G., Hong, S., Oh, H., Kim, M., Park, J., Kim, H., Kim, D., Lee, B., 2008. A cloned toy poodle produced from somatic cells derived from an aged female dog. Theriogeneology 69, 556-563.
Secondary sources
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2008/02/133_18963.html
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2254021.htm
http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4742453.stm
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