R1.1m for a cloned dog
2008-02-14 10:42
Seoul - A South Korean biotech company is offering dog owners the chance to clone their pet through a service that can cost up to $148 000 (R1.1m) for a puppy.
RNL Bio, affiliated with the South Korean lab that produced
the world's first cloned canine, expects to deliver its first
cloned dog in about a year to a US woman in her 50s who saved
biological material from her beloved pit bull that recently
died.
"These days, dogs are treated like family members. There
are many owners who would rather clone a favourite pet than
adopt a new one after it dies," said RNL Bio President Ra
Jeong-chan.
RNL Bio is affiliated with the team at Seoul National
University (SNU) that produced the world's first cloned dog,
which has been verified through independent testing.
The same SNU lab has been implicated in a scandal for
deliberately fabricating data in separate studies on human
embryonic stem cells.
RNL expects it can clone about 30 pet dogs a year at
present and increase that number to about 200 by 2010, with
costs going down as the cloning technology increases in
efficiency, Ra said.
Costs will drop
Lee Byeong-chun, the Seoul National University professor
who has led previous canine cloning projects, said of the
partnership: "Within one or two years, we will see costs drop
to a reasonable level."
Dogs are considered one of the most difficult mammals to
clone because of their unpredictable reproductive cycle as well
as difficulties in inducing ovulation and fertilising eggs in
the lab.
RNL and the university lab have also teamed up to clone
drug-sniffing dogs, seeing-eye dogs and other types of dogs
used by governments and charities at a much cheaper rate than
for pet owners, they said.
The Korea Customs Service said it has signed a memorandum
of understanding with the team for cloning drug-sniffing dogs.
The SNU lab was once led by disgraced scientist Hwang
Woo-suk, who is now standing trial on charges of fraud,
embezzlement and violating the country's bioethics laws.