Animal Cloning By :

Hanz Apple CoscosZenia Biong

Reinalyn Andaluz Elisha Yuipco

Agnes Grace Sabijon

What is animal cloning? A clone is a genetic copy of another living

organism. The genetic material of a cloned offspring is drawn from a single source, rather than being a combination of sperm and egg genes. In sexual reproduction, half of the genetic material of an individual comes from a female and half from a male.

Advantages of Animal Cloning • There will be an endless supply of

animals to clone, and we will never run out of food from animals, because we have been able to clone based on previous efforts, the most famous of these was the first ever cloning of an animal, Dolly the lamb which was a successful cloning where Dolly was a healthy lamb.

• The animal in which we intend to clone will result perfectly the same as the animal which has been cloned in every way, identical in all senses of the word. The eyes, the nose, the ears, the face, everything! Dolly was a perfect example of this through how she came out exactly the same. But this sheep is not the only animal which cloning can work effectively on, there are many animals which have also been successfully cloned such as horses and bulls, just not as famous as Dolly.

• Through animal cloning, we can go into further research into how complicated and intricate our world that God created really is, and could discover information that we’ve never seen before.

• One of the greatest breakthroughs of all time, cloning has been discovered, something which could be revolutionary if we use it to our advantage through continuing on with our research and studies into it, with discoveries that could change our lives forever.

Disadvantages of Animal Cloning

• Although the cloned animal will be identical. It will only possess about half the life span of the normal animal which has been cloned. An example is from the famous ‘Dolly’  previous mentioned which only lived for 6 years, whereas normal sheep can live up to about 10 years of age, so a great decrease in age.

• Reasons for cloning aren’t exactly for keeping resources, such as food for the future, but in fact we are basically taking embryos from the animal for research and by doing this leaving the animal useless. This is similar to humans being cloned, where there human embryos are taken away from them for research because they believe that it isn’t really a person. However, if it is alive and has every trait that a humans has, then how can it be called useless to us?

• Even if we can clone animals and make them perfectly the same, is this what God would’ve wanted? For us to have the power to clone living organisms such as animals, and one day even human beings?

• Many believe cloning is quite inhumane, especially that of religious and some governmental parties which don’t want to move forward with this research. They think life is just too precious to take away, even if it is a clone in which we are testing.

CLONED ANIMALS

In 1996, Scottish researchers shocked the world with the news that they had cloned a sheep, which they dubbed Dolly. Due to progressive lung disease and arthritis uncommon for a sheep of her age, Dolly was euthanized at age 6. (Her taxidermied remains are displayed at The National Museum of Scotland, shown here.) Dolly’s birth and death sparked a debate about the ethics of animal cloning that continues today. Some see cloning as the only hope for certain, critically endangered species. Here’s a look at some of the lesser-known animals created through cloning. (Text: Katherine Butler)

Indian bison, also known as gaur, look like a cross between an ox and a water buffalo. They are commonly found in Asian tropical woodlands in places like Cambodia, Laos, China, India, Nepal and Vietnam. As humans encroach on their wild habitats, their numbers are dwindling. In 2001, Bessie, an American cow, gave birth to a gaur clone called Noah in Iowa. Noah initially exhibited promise, and one of his creators told CNN that "within 12 hours of birth, Noah was able to stand unaided and began an inquisitive search of his new surroundings." But just 48 hours after birth, Noah succumbed to an intestinal disorder and died. 

The endangered European mouflon, also known as a small, feral sheep, was first cloned in 2001 in Italy. Threatened in its original habitat of the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia, Corsica and Cyprus, the animal nearly died out a century ago. The mouflon was cloned using the same technique scientists used to create the sheep Dolly — a somatic cell nuclear transfer. This is alab technique used to create an ovum with a donor nucleus.

The domestic ferret was first cloned in 2006through somatic cell nuclear transfer, in part to produce test subjects for human medical research. However, the process may be used to protect endangered ferrets as well. The black-footed ferret is among the most endangered mammals in North America. A recent boom in the prairie dog population, which the ferret likes to eat, has slowly brought their numbers back up. However, as landowners often blame the ferret for damaging crops, their situation remains tenuous.

The water buffalo, also known as the Asian buffalo, is a large member of the bovini family that hs horns that curve backward in a crescent shape and can grow to 6 feet tall. These animals enjoy the muddy waters of tropical and subtropical Asia, and they also forage on aquatic plants and grasslands. They are friends to humans and have been domesticated for at least 5,000 years. In 2005, the first water buffalo was cloned in China in a study run by Guangxi University.

Rhesus monkeys are what National Geographic terms an “old world animal,” as their range includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia and China. Some introduced monkeys live in the wilds of Florida. They are social animals that live in female-led communities featuring an occasional dominant male.

The banteng is a species of wild cattle found primarily in Southeast Asia. Banteng, which are also known as native Indonesian cattle, are listed by the World Conservation Union as “severely threatened” as their numbers have declined as much as 85 percent in the past 15 to 20 years. A large herd of banteng resides in Australia, where they are largely protected short of 40 males that hunters pay to shoot each year. In an effort to preserve the species, two banteng calves were born to surrogate cows in Iowa in 2003. The genetic material to clone the calves came from the San Diego Zoo's Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species, where genetic tissue from endangered animals is being archived.

The African wildcat, which is found in Africa and the Middle East, is a bit smaller than its domestic counterpart. It is also one of the first wild species to be cloned. The Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species announced in 2005 that their cloned wildcats had bred and delivered two litters of kittens. "By improving the cloning process and then encouraging cloned animals to breed and make babies, we can revive the genes of individuals who might not be reproductively viable otherwise, and we can save genes from animals in the wild,” Dr. Betsy Dresser, who led the scientific team at the Audubon Center, said in a BBC article.

The Pyrenean ibex was declared extinct when the last of its kind was found dead in its native Spain in 2000. But in 2009, reports surfaced that scientists had preserved DNA from the last known Pyrenean ibex. Filling in the blanks with DNA from domestic goats, a newborn ibex was created, but died shortly after birth due to lung problems. This was the first time an extinct species was “resurrected,” albeit for only a short time.

It is not just endangered animals that have received the attention of scientists. The white-tailed deer is extremely common in North America. Nonetheless, researchers at Texas A&M cloned the first white-tailed deer in 2003. White-tailed deer are the most abundant big-game livestock in America and ranchers make a significant amount of money from hunters who pay to stalk them on their ranches. "Especially in the state of Texas, there are a lot of ranches that make more money on their deer management than they do on their livestock," researcher Mark Westhusin, who helped create the clone, told msnbc.com Westhusin also says that cloning could preserve some endangered species of deer.

Idaho GemThe world's first cloned mule, was born on May 4. He is an identical genetic copy of his brother, a champion racing mule called Taz, and the first clone to be born in the equine family.

CopycatThe world's first cloned kitten, named Cc. It was created by scientists in Texas using a cell taken from an adult tortoiseshell female (see next picture). The photo, taken on December 22 2001 when the kitten was seven weeks old, was made public in February 2002.

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