In China, a kitten was cloned for the first time for commercial purposes, it is possible to give a second life to a deceased pet for 250 thousand yuan (2.34 million rubles), Wang Yining, vice president of biotechnology company SinoGene, who cloned the animal, told RIA Novosti.
“Despite the fact that this is not the first cloned kitten in the world, it is the first cloned in China. Kittens could not clone in China. In addition, this is the first case of a commercial cloning of a kitten,” Van Yining said in an interview with RIA Novosti .
According to him, the owner of the cloned animal was very worried after the death of his pet, who died due to a sudden illness, and therefore decided to use the services of the company.
Van Yining said that from the point of view of DNA, a cloned animal will be absolutely identical to the “original”, but there may be differences in character.
“As for the character, we can say that its foundation is embedded in the DNA, but at the same time, some characteristics of the pet’s character may also depend on the living conditions and environment. For example, training and so on. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that the character will 100% the same as that of a deceased animal, “Van Yining said, adding that there is no difference in life expectancy between a cloned animal and an ordinary animal.
The whole process of cloning a kitten takes 3-4 months, but the animal after birth for another two months remains in the laboratory under observation. The cloned kitten is currently in the laboratory, as he is not yet two months old.
“Now the cloning of one dog costs 380 thousand yuan (3.5 million rubles), the cloning of a cat is 250 thousand yuan,” said a company representative.
In 2017, the attention of the whole world was riveted to SinoGene after the first dog in the world was bred from a somatic cell using the gene knockout method (a molecular genetics method in which the given genes are removed or made inoperative). A dog named Lun Lun became a clone of a Beagle Pingo dog bred at SinoGene in December 2016. Pingo, in turn, was the first dog in the world bred using the gene editing method.
