A kitten was cloned in China: will baby Garlic start a profitable business

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

A cloned kitten with a funny name Garlic was born within the walls of the Beijing laboratory of the Sinogene Biotechnology Company. He became the first cat cloned in China. The baby was born on July 21, but scientists from a Beijing biotechnology company told the world about this fact just the other day. Successful cloning allowed Eastern researchers to openly declare their intention to put this process on a commercial track.

The copy and the original are similar only in appearance

The company began an experiment to recreate live copies of deceased cats and cats in August 2018. Kitten Garlic is the first success of the Sinogene Biotechnology Company employees. He was born 66 days after the embryo was transferred to a surrogate mother.

- My previous cat died of urinary tract disease. I decided to clone it because it was so special, so unforgettable … - Garlic owner Huang Yu told the Global Times.

The copy cat and the original cat (judging by his photo) outwardly seem identical, but, as explained by the chief scientist of the Beijing company and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Lai Liangxue, they are completely different in character.

To make the cloned animal have the same memories as the original, the company is considering using artificial intelligence or human-machine interface technology to store them or even transfer the memories to the cloned animals, Sinogene's general manager made a statement at a press conference.

“Successful cloning of a cat or dog requires that the embryo be cultured from the animal's cell before being implanted into the surrogate's uterus,” Lai explained. - The whole process from cell extraction to birth takes at least two months.

Cloning as a business

Very soon, cat owners, devastated by the death of their beloved pets, will be comforted by the real possibility of cloning them. Representatives of the company said that they plan to put this process on stream and offer citizens services for cloning their beloved cats. The company even announced the estimated price for such a cloning - a quarter of a million yuan (about $ 35,400) for one recreated animal.

Zhao Jianping, deputy general manager of the Beijing-based company, says several cat owners have already booked the service with Sinogene, and opaquely hinted that the future market could be huge. By the way, according to Lai Liangxue, the lifespan of a cloned cat is the same as that of any other.

The company also offers dog cloning services to everyone, and this will cost potential customers even more - 380 thousand yuan.

Today, there are more than 73 million pet owners in China, so the likelihood of finding among them those who want to take advantage of the offer of the Beijing company is quite high.

Or as a way to preserve endangered species …

Meanwhile, the Beijing company pursues more than commercial goals in its scientific research. Along with cloning cats, she is seriously considering applying her cloning technology to endangered animals.

Such a process will require additional experiments on interspecies cloning, but no scientist has yet cloned an interspecies animal due to technological barriers.

While cloning technology is a beacon of hope for some pet owners, the topic remains controversial in the scientific community. Some of her opponents argue that such a process violates animal rights. Others fear that one day the cloning technology will be applicable to humans, which could cause ethical problems. Still others warn against possible mistakes, the consequences of which can be unpredictable.

Professor at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Chen Dayuan, notes that his team tried to inject a panda's body cell into a nuclear-free egg taken from a cat, since both cubs are the same size, and the gestation period of these animals is also identical (from two to three months). However, as Chen admitted, although China created an early panda embryo by interspecies cloning in 1999, it has not yet been possible to get a recreated panda through an interspecies clone.

“Due to the limited number of endangered species, such as giant pandas, scientists cannot conduct experiments on cloning them directly, without a replacement chosen by them,” Lai explained in turn.

Continuing the topic: 29 photos of animals that may soon disappear from our planet.