Biopeer

And now Snuppy—the first cloned dog

From Dolly the sheep to Snuppy the puppy, it is no longer the road less traveled. Since Dolly was cloned in 1996, researchers have successfully cloned pigs, cattle, mice, rabbits, horses and cats. And now, for the first time, scientists have succeeded in creating a genetic double of a dog, a feat that has hitherto eluded cloning experts across the world. This stunning breakthrough has been pulled off by South Korea’s pioneering stem-cell scientist, Hwang Woo-Suk and his team at the Seoul National University.

The cloned canine, named Snuppy, was copied through somatic cell nuclear transfer, the same method used to create Dolly. Scientists took a skin cell from the ear of a 3-year-old male Afghan hound and extracted genetic material from the nucleus. They transferred it to an unfertilized egg whose nucleus was removed. The reconstructed egg holding the DNA from the donor cell was zapped with an electric current to stimulate cell division. Once the cloned embryo reached a suitable stage, it was transferred to the uterus of a surrogate where it continued to develop until birth.

Snuppy opens up the possibility of treating illnesses shared by both canines and people, such as diabetes and dementia. Woo-Suk believes perfecting the controversial technology will eventually lead to discoveries of therapies for debilitating diseases and handicaps, and help replenish extinct animals. 

While some laud the Korean team’s achievements, others believe the idea is unethical and have renewed calls for a global ban on human reproductive cloning. So far, animal cloning has been plagued with abnormalities and premature deaths of both the clones and their surrogates. Moreover, destroying hundreds of higher mammals to replicate raises questions about the ethics of cloning.

We can argue endlessly about the morality of cloning dogs or using embryonic stem cells for research, it is going to occur regardless. Hence, a global regime that lays down norms and sets ethical standards by which scientific groups and governments explore and share this powerful new knowledge must be put in place soon.

Cloned Cattle; Are There Risks for Consumers?

The FDA has been reviewing the safety of food products from cloned animals for a few years now. A new report by American-Japanese collaborators indicates that meat and milk from cloned cows seem normal. Neither this report, nor several others, are likely to hush the skeptics. A spokeswoman with the consumer group Public Citizen feels that researchers aren’t looking closely enough into the matter, citing how the offspring of cloned animals have been found to experience above-average stress, and stressed animals have been found to have more pathogens in their systems.

Meanwhile, humans have been eating clones of plants/vegetables for centuries with no adverse effects. The FDA is proceeding as it must, but what are the bets that questions about the possible health risks of cloned farm products keep surfacing for many a year?

What would the animals say?

While legislators in different countries continue to address limitations on human cloning, the cloning of nonhuman animals continues, often without restrictions. The cloning process still has so many problems that very few animals are born as a result of this procedure, in respect to the numbers of embryos created, and those born may have health issues, say researchers. With this in mind, to what extent should scientists be cloning near-extinct animals, such as a rare stag? And should private companies be allowed to clone pets, especially when the world already contains a multitude of homeless dogs and cats? Humane societies usually take a strong stand against this latter use of cloning.

Most humans are deadset against the reproductive cloning of humans. Should we be saving animals from this contrived form of reproduction as well? -- Ann Parson, author of "The Proteus Effect; Stem Cells and Their Promise for Medicine"