Future opportunities in livestock production and biomedicine from advances in animal cloning

Abstract

Recent international advances in animal cloning technology have enabled the production of offspring from cultured cells derived from either embryos, foetuses or adults. When the current nuclear transfer process becomes more efficient, there will be three main applications for agriculture. These include: (1) the rapid dissemination of animals with the desired genetic characteristics; (2) the use of cloning for phenotypic evaluation of animals; and most significantly, (3) the production of genetically modified animals. Nuclear transfer will be combined with gene targeting technology to introduce precise genetic modifications to the cultured cells in the laboratory, resulting in the production of cloned transgenic farm animals. It is anticipated that this will herald a new era in biotechnology, with opportunities to generate animals for various biomedical applications and with modified livestock production