LESS than a year after the birth of the first cloned foal, the battle over whether horses should be cloned is well under way.
In the UK, the government last week refused permission for horses to be cloned, on the grounds that the potential suffering of the animals outweighs any potential gains. In Australia last year, a cloning application was also turned down.
But in other countries, work is going ahead. And the researcher in the UK whose application was refused, William Twink Allen of the University of Cambridge Equine Fertility Unit, has told 快猫短视频 that if his appeal against the ruling fails, he will try to do the work in France instead.
Advertisement
He hopes to collaborate with Cryozootech, a French company that has already collected tissue samples from 25 outstanding horses and is working with equine cloning groups in Italy and Texas. 鈥淚 would be very happy to cooperate with him,鈥� says Eric Palmer, founder of Cryozootech.
There is no question of thoroughbred racehorses being legitimately cloned, as an agreement among the world鈥檚 racing authorities bans all forms of artificial breeding. But there are no rules preventing cloned horses or their offspring competing in a host of other equestrian sports including showjumping, dressage and three-day eventing.
At the moment, the genes of champion horses often die with them, because many are gelded to make them more docile. Researchers like Allen want to use cloning to save these bloodlines: the clones themselves would be unlikely to compete, but could be bred from in the normal way.
鈥淲hat a shame about the decision!鈥� says Katrin Hinrichs of Texas A&M University in College Station, where a mare is pregnant with a cloned foal. 鈥淎side from its use in saving the genetics of valuable horses, cloning is a valuable tool in the exploration of equine reproduction.鈥�
But within the breeding industry there is unease. Some fear that the clones of a few champions would monopolise equine sports. And lobby groups such as Animal Aid in the UK argue that welfare issues make cloning for the sake of sport 鈥渃ompletely unacceptable鈥�. Many clones die during pregnancy, and the survivors are often deformed.
Even some cloners have doubts. 鈥淚t鈥檚 unethical to abuse this technology for cosmetic or entertainment purposes,鈥� says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, a US company that clones farm animals.
But horse-cloning pioneer Cesare Galli of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies in Cremona, Italy, thinks the welfare issues are overstated. Last year his team produced the world鈥檚 first cloned horse, Prometea, and is expecting another to be born in August. Working with ovaries from slaughterhouses, as he and Allen do, means mares undergo nothing worse than the non-surgical transfer of the cloned embryos, he says. 鈥淭hat is a non-issue from an animal welfare point of view.鈥� He accepts, however, that there are more miscarriages.
Horse cloning is not the only 鈥渇rivolous鈥� use of the technology. A Californian company recently launched a cat-cloning service.