Thanks to Bloomberg.com for this news.
Seoul National University Succeeds in Cloning Three Female Dogs
By Yumin Kim
Seoul National University, South Korea’s top national university said that it succeeded in cloning the world’s first female dogs.
Three female Afghan hounds are healthy after one was born in June and the other two in July, said Lee Byeong Chun, professor at the university’s college of veterinary medicine at a press conference in Seoul today. Veterinary publication Theriogenology accepted Lee’s paper, “Birth of viable female dogs produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer” and is reviewing it, Lee said. The journal published the paper on its Web site on Dec. 14.
“This has reaffirmed that South Korea is at the forefront of animal cloning, especially dog-cloning” said Lee, who led the research. “Female dogs are meaningful in that they can facilitate cloning dogs with certain diseases, which can be used for human diagnostic cures.” Lee added that research is still in its initial stages for applying animal models to human diseases.
Seoul National University cloned the world first male dog, Snuppy, in 2005. The university increased the efficiency in producing cloned embryos and pregnancies to 25 percent with the three female dogs, from 0.8 percent in Snuppy’s case, by using methods including directly stimulating ova in process of conception, Lee said.
