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South Korean Scientists Clone Dog
Ebon Praetor writes "According to the BBC and Reuters, South Korean scientists have created the world's first cloned dog, an Afghan hound. The research purpose of the research is ostensibly to produce research animals and not for commercial purposes. Dogs are especially difficult to clone, but the scientists were able to extract DNA from a skin cell, inject it into an egg, and implant the egg into a surrogate mother."
From the NYTimes story:
* Can't stimulate estrus with hormones, as you can with other animals. (Doggy estrus is weird. I read about it while reading up on dogs prior to adopting one. Very complex process, and messy. Glad my pup is spayed.)
* Difficult to detect ovulation.
* Eggs are not ripe when they leave the ovary. They have to be nabbed as they travel through the fallopian tube, modified, and reinserted within a few hours.
Clones are no different than identical twins.
Identical twins are formed when one egg is fertilized by one sperm. After fertilization, the egg splits. Each twin will share exactly the same DNA. They will look alike right down to hair color and eye color.
In fact since twins share the same womb environment they are more identical than a clone.
So getting mad at people who buy dogs from breeders is just being ill-informed...
Selective breeding of dogs is the cause of these genetic defects, not the solution to them!
Of course the damage has already been done now - the more ludicrous the shape of your dog, the finer the "pedigree". Buy a mongrel - the genetic diversity should reduce the likelihood of some of these problems.
Homme petit d'homme petit, s'attend, n'avale
Seoul National University puppy = Snuppy.