Livestock Cloning:
The Future of Agriculture
Why Clone?
Explore the reasons scientists clone livestock (and other animals).
Uses in Agriculture
Livestock cloning primarily occurs to preserve ideal traits in certain livestock. Farmers are able to clone the "best" animal(s) (whether they be alive or already slaughtered) in order to save and spread these naturally positive characteristics, resulting in better quality food. For instance, one could clone the heartiest pigs (those which provide ample amounts of meat) and breed them to perfection for consumption. This technique greatly improves the efficiency of preserving preferable traits in a group of livestock; cloning is much faster than conventional breeding methods, saving time - and as a result, saving money. In addition, the animal that is cloned can then be used as a breeding animal, not for food directly - multiple cows with beneficial genes are better than one! The cloned animal's offspring would have the beneficial traits, and they could then be used for food. In this way, more food could come from just one animal. Not using the clone for food also alleviates some concerns about the safety of eating cloned food - most of the time, meat isn't directly from the clone itself!
The ideal traits that farmers want to preserve in livestock include:
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Resistance to disease to increase the chance of survival
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Being suited to the climate
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Preferable body type (ex. large udders for breeding and quick maturity to obtain meat faster)
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Increased fertility, which can be beneficial if farmers want to use the cloned animal as breeding stock
To read more on how cloning ideal livestock benefits the economy, click here.
Medical Benefits to Animal Cloning
In general, animal cloning will contribute to the medical field as well as agriculture. The technology utilized to clone livestock has the potential to cure diseases.
Cloned cells from animals can be the key to curing diseases. For example, in one study conducted at the University of Colorado, researchers transplanted cloned cattle brain cells into rats; these brain cells were found to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease in the lab rats. Cloned cells could be applied to human health by treating Parkinson's disease in humans as well. Further research could apply cloned animal cells to cure other diseases as well - the possibilities are endless! (C-3.3)
Researchers can also use animal models (transgenic animals) to study human disease. Cloning could speed up the process by quickly producing multiple genetically identical animals for scientists to study, rather than producing each animal individually. In addition, cloning can help create stem cells, which "build, maintain, and repair the body" (C-3.2) and can repair diseased organs. Since transferring stem cells poses challenges, such as the body rejecting those cells as foreign, cloning can be used to create stem cells based off an individual's genes. Stem cells can be used for both medical treatment and research about diseases. (C-3.2)
One example of cloning applied to human health is a herd of cloned, genetically engineered cows containing antibodies against Ebola. This project, led by SAb Biotherapeutics, involves first genetically engineering cattle to produce antibodies against Ebola, and then cloning them to quickly make a herd of genetically identical antibiotic-containing cattle. This example shows us that animal cloning, combined with animal genetics, can assist in curing diseases. (C-3.4)
