Clone Factory

Alexander Kornev, Naked Science 

In the Chinese city of Tianjin, it is planned to build the world's largest animal cloning center, which will "release" cows, horses and even dogs.

According to China Daily (Tianjin plans world's largest animal cloning factory) with reference to the Economic and Technological Development Committee of the city administration, the initial investment in the creation of the center will amount to 200 million yuan (more than $ 31 million). The center will include laboratories, a gene bank, as well as exhibition halls. The officially announced goal of creating the center is the development of animal husbandry in the country.

The Committee signed a strategic agreement with Yingke Boya Gene Technology, a subsidiary of Boyalife Group, one of the leading Chinese companies in the field of stem cells and biological medicine. The South Korean company Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, together with which Chinese researchers previously engaged in cloning dogs, will also take part in the project. By the end of this year, the Korean company will clone 550 dogs for airport customs services.

Recall that China, along with South Korea and Japan, are leaders in the Asian market for genetic research. In 2004, a gene bank was created in China, in which panda cells were collected in order to preserve this animal species. For industrial purposes, cloning of cows is being mastered in China. At the end of the summer of this year, the cloned genetically modified Chinese cow Niu Niu gave birth to a healthy calf. She was one of two cow clones created in 2012 with a genome that increases the amount of fat in muscles. According to scientists, this was the country's first step towards its own production of marbled beef. Testing of the newborn showed that the task of increasing the proportion of fat in the total body weight was completed. In addition, the calf showed less susceptibility to negative environmental influences than its "natural" counterparts.

At the same time, outside Asia, experiments on cloning animals to saturate the meat market are ambiguous. On September 8, 2015, the European Parliament voted for a complete ban on the cloning of all types of farm animals, as well as the sale of such livestock, its offspring and any products derived from it. As Science magazine reported at the time, the new measure goes beyond the directive adopted earlier, in 2013, which applied only to five types of farm animals: cows, horses, sheep, pigs and goats. At the same time, the ban does not apply to cloning for research purposes and attempts to restore populations of endangered animals by cloning. 

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24.11.2015