cloned cats

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Cloned Cats

First Cloned Cat

The world's first cloned cat was born on 22 December, 2001 in Texas, USA. The kitten, named "Carbon Copy" or CC for short was the product of Genetic Savings & Clone, Inc. The company funded, and it is presumed, worked closely with the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine, on the multi million dollar "Missyplicity" project, to clone a mongrel dog named "Missy." Then it was discovered that dogs' cells were more resistant to cloning than those of cats, "Operation Copycat" then became the focus of the project, and the kitten, CC was the end result.

The fact that the cloned kitten was one of only 87 cloned cat embryos to survive just illustrates the difficulty of such an undertaking, and shows how many obstacles there are to overcome in this area of research. The process used was similar to that used with Dolly the sheep, the researchers transplanted DNA derived from the nuclei of cumulus cells of a calico cat into the empty (nucleus removed) egg cell of another cat, then transplanted the embryo into yet another cat.

First Cloned Animal

In 1952, the first animal, a tadpole, was cloned by Robert Briggs and Thomas King in the US, using embryonic cells. Unfortunately, none of these lived long enough to grow beyond having hind limbs. The first successful cloning of an mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal was achieved by the group, headed by Dr. Ian Wilmut, a 52-year-old embryologist at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland. When on 24 February, 1997 a little lamb named Dolly, cloned from a sheep's udder was born. A new era of genetic engineering had begun, bringing with it many moral, ethical and scientific issues.

On 23 April, 1998 Dolly gave birth to a daughter named "Bonnie". This proved that Dolly was not just a successful living clone when she was born, but that she succeeded in growing and maturing to adulthood. But unfortunately, it was not to last. At 15.30 on Friday 14 February, 2003, scientists at the Roslin Institute decided that Dolly would have to be put down, due to a progressive lung disease she had been suffering from.

Many cloned animals exist today, but so far the number of different species is limited. Attempts at cloning monkeys, chickens, horses, and dogs, have all been unsuccessful. Some species appear to be more resistant to somatic cell nuclear transfer than others, as this process is a very traumatic one.

First Cloned Pet

Little Nicky, is the world's first cloned-to-order pet. The kitten cost its owner, Julie, from Texas $50,000 and was created using DNA from her beloved cat, Nicky. After reading about the birth of the first cloned cat, CC, Julie began investigating the possibility of cloning her original Nicky. When Nicky died in September 2003, Julie sent a genetic sample to Genetic Savings & Clone, and It was on17 Oct that Little Nicky was born. The Company have cloned three other cats prior to Little Nicky who have all been presented at cat shows.

Food For Thought

Between 15 percent and 45 percent of cloned cats born alive die within the first 30 days.
Scientists warn that cloned animals suffer from greater health problems than their traditionally bred peers, also cloning is still a very inexact science. It takes many gruesome failures to produce just a single clone.
Critics also complain that the technology is available only to the wealthy, that using it to create house pets is frivolous and that customers grieving over lost pets have unrealistic expectations of what they're buying.
Animals rights activists complain that new feline production systems aren't needed because thousands of stray cats are put down each year for want of homes.
"It's morally problematic and a little reprehensible," said David Magnus, co-director of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University. "For $50,000, she could have provided homes for a lot of strays."

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