Animals and cloning
Clone Fact:
Under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the reproductive cloning of humans is banned.
What animals have been cloned?
Since the sixties, scientists have been conducting research on cloning in a wide range of animals using various techniques. In the year of 1979, scientists created the very first mice which were genetically identical and made by splitting mice embryos in test tubes and later inserting these embryos into the uteruses of mature, female mice. Just a little time later, scientists managed to ‘create’ the very first genetically identical chickens, cows and sheep but by a different form of cloning than used before in mice, namely by therapeutic cloning.
However it was only just a short time ago, in 1996, that scientists managed to successfully clone the first ever mammal from a somatic cell which was taken from a sheep. It took a whopping 276 attempts before the researchers from Scotland managed to do this, they named the lamb Dolly. Just two years later Japanese researchers did a similar thing by cloning eight calves from only a single cow however just half of these survived.
Apart from the livestock animals, several others mammals that have been cloned with the use of somatic cells are: a deer, a cat, a dog, a horse, an ox, a mule, a rabbit and a rat. On top of that researches have also cloned a Rhesus monkey by embryo splitting.
What are the potential applications of cloned animals?
Cloning, and especially reproductive cloning, might make it possible for researchers to create clones of animals with benefits for medication and agriculture.
For example, the Scottish researches who have also formed Dolly, have also cloned a sheep shortly after that has been genetically modified in such a way that it produces milk which contains a human protein that is necessary for blood clotting, without this cloning that wouldn’t have been possible. They are aiming to make it possible to be used for medication in the future to help people whose blood does not clot in the way it is used to. Another example of a possible function of cloning is the testing of new medication and treatments so that it doesn’t have to be performed on humans. The real advantage of this is that all these clones have an identical genetically body which makes conducting research easier and more efficient.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, has stated and confirmed that the milk and meat from cloned animals like cattle and goats are just as safe as the products of normal animals. This means that scientists are now allowed and free to use cloning to make clones of animals with the purpose of getting animals with positive traits in regards to meat and milk production. This however is not yet practical as it’s very expensive and still takes lots of research to perfect before cloned products can possibly be found in supermarkets.
Another possible use of cloning is to rebuild the populations of endangered or even actual extinct animals. It was in the year of 2001 that the first clone was made of an endangered animal, namely an Asian ox also known as the Guar. Unfortunately though the Guar, which had born from a surrogate cow mother died shortly after its birth. 2 years later a similar animal, also an endangered species of the ox, namely the Banteg was cloned successfully. There are however some experts who believe that cloning a population of endangered animals back to a proper size has no point as they lack the genetic variability essential to survival of a species.
In addition to this, there are people which have said to be interested in having their dead pets cloned or ‘resurrected’ so create a similar animal to replace the old deceased one. However it is shown that even though the clone might be genetically identical, throughout its growth and development the cloned pet might turn out different than the original pet.
What are the potential drawbacks of cloning animals?
As of today, reproductive cloning is still very inefficient as nearly all cloned animal embryos are not able to fully develop into grown and healthy animals. Dolly for example was the first healthy clone to be produced out of a huge 277 cloned embryos. That’s less than 0,5%, these factors together make reproductive cloning not yet able to real be utilised.
Another problem regarding the results of reproductive cloning is that the resulting clones have some severe health issues especially in animals, Problems such as defects in vital organs, premature aging and lethal problems regarding the immune system. There is even another obstruction that hinders the possible application of cloning, namely the fact that the points of the chromosomes, named telomeres, become smaller over time. Eventually these telomeres, which are essential for cell division, become so short that they die and cause a much shorter lifespan. Dolly for example, died at just half the age at which normal sheep die.