Dogs In The News -- World's First Cloned Dog
Hey folks... I am back again after a long span of time with something really interesting to talk about. You might wanna know where was I hibernating all these days. I was lost in my world of job. Days have been so hectic for me that I couldn't even get time for myself. Somebody - told me, "Hey, chase your target, you shouldn't have your personal life"!
Just yesterday one of my darlin' li'l sister colleagues asked me "why don't you update the blog? It's dying"! She's a new comer in blogging world with her new baby... cool one! She's nurturing it well, it's but not crawled as yet.
It's been a long span since I last posted about Mc Nab dog breed and I was having nothing swirling in my mind regarding what to talk about then. I suddenly remembered, I tried posting about something a couple of weeks back, but time did not permit me. I remembered 'I shouldn't have my personal life' :)
Here's something that I came across sometimes back! Have you heard of SNUPPY? Some of you have... I'm sure; I'm sure, many haven't. I wasn't aware of this fact too until I found news flashed on the BBC's official site. A group of South Korean researchers have been working on this since years. They have produced the world's first cloned dog. Earlier in 2005 these scientists announced that they succeeded deriving stem cells from a cloned human embryo and around the mid of the year (Snuppy was born on April 24, 2005) they created the world's first cloned dog - a male Afghan Hound. The Afghan was cloned in cooperation with the a team of scientists of Seoul National University, giving birth to a couple of cute little pooches. Although one of the puppies died soon after the birth, the other one (named SNUPPY) is doing well till date.
Why Snuppy? Why not something else?
Well, the scientists named the puppy in the honor of the organization - Seoul National University Puppy - SNUPPY. Check out how they created SNUPPY... click here. The lead researcher behind the creation was Hwang Woo-suk, who had been caught to be faking other researches, thereby breeding lot of doubts as to whether Snuppy was the real cloned dog. Later independent experiments have been carried out to prove that SNUPPY was a true clone and exactly representing his gorgeous genetic dad! SNUPPY is quite healthy these days and good news is that, he's joining a host of other cloned animals, some of which are the sheep - Dolly, the cat - CC and the rat - Ralph.
Scientists believe that dog clones would help understand some of the critical canine diseases and would help them discover the secrets of cure of these ailments. They hope dog clones may help cure some human diseases too. Let's hope for the best. Congratulations Dr. Hwang Woo-suk and all the best for your next leap!
Check out some cool pics of SNUPY - the world's first dog cloned from adult cells by somatic nuclear cell transfer.
How was Snuppy created?
The scientists transferred 1095 canine embryos in 123 bitches that included three pregnancies. One fetus was miscarried , while one clone died at the age of three week due to pneumonia. The scientist picked a female fawn Labrador Retriever to carry the third embryo to term. Dr. Hwang Woo-suk and his team announced their success of cloning the world's first canine in August 2005. SNUPPY was cloned from adult cells by somatic nuclear cell transfer.
Category Article Inventions and Discoveries
