Sunday, March 16, 2008

Pet Cloning



Born in 2005, this Afghan Hound was cloned from adult cells by somatic nuclear cell transfer. An empty donor egg was taken from a mixed-breed bitch, and the DNA was taken from the skin cells of the to-be-cloned dog. The egg cell and DNA were then fused together and cultured to trigger embryo growth. The growing egg was then implanted into a Labrador surrogate mother. That's how Snuppy came to be.

That was in 3 years ago, and since Snuppy is still healthy, a new service is appearing. The South Korean biotech company: RNL Bio, affiliated with the Seoul National University lab, is offering dog owners the chance to clone their pets.

Earlier this year, a woman from California wanted her recently deceased pitbull terrier Booger to be recreated. They charged the woman $150,000 and used tissue extracted from its ear before it died.

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