Vets urge caution on pet cloning

A session on the ethics of pet cloning and genetic modification at this week's Australian Veterinary Association conference in Adelaide heard that people needed to feel comfortable with cloning before they would buy it.

Dr Steve Atkinson, president of the AVA's ethics, research and teaching special interest group, said more than 50 people attended the conference session and workshop, which sought to examine ethical and welfare issues for vets surrounding the new technology.

Atkinson said that one of the main things to come out of the discussions was the need for people to become comfortable with the technology and the issues surrounding it.

"We have to be very cautious. This is not an exact science, we don't have all the answers yet," he said.

Atkinson noted that while it was becoming possible to clone pets, there were still too many problems in the technology.

He pointed out that often hundreds of attempts had been made to clone one animal, and said that the potential for genetic defects was of major concern.

In addition, he said he believed that pet owners who turned to cloning to replace a beloved animal might well be disappointed with the result as the cloned animal was unlikely to be identical in looks or personality.

But he said there were also some positive benefits to the technology.

"There are some areas where gene technology may be heading toward a useful purpose," he said, suggesting that it could be used to cure genetic defects that cause inherited conditions such as blindness.

Atkinson said that Australian pet owners keen to clone their animals were already approaching veterinary surgeons.

"There are a number of people already conserving tissues from prized and important animals, just waiting for this to be available," he said.

Australia does not have a service available for pet owners, although some breeders have taken advantage of the Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia, part of the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development, to store tissue for the future.

The world's first commercial pet gene bank - Genetic Savings and Clone - has been set up in the USA and earlier this year announced they had successfully performed the world's first cat cloning.

Genetic Savings and Clone is an offshoot of the Missyplicity Project, a privately funded attempt at cloning Missy, the pet dog of a wealthy Californian couple.

The project, located at Texas A&M University, has been given more than $US2 million to develop the technology and clone Missy.

According to its website, Genetic Savings and Clone is planning to offer commercial cat cloning services later this year.

The fee is steep - $US895 just to bank the sample (US$1395 for "emergency" banking), plus a maintenance fee of $100-150 per year.

The cloning fee has not been set yet, but the company expects that it will cost less than $20,000 within three years.

Atkinson hopes that by the time pet cloning services are available, the technology will have become more reliable.

He said that although vets in the community were unlikely to be involved in the cloning process, it would be important for them to be fully aware of the issues, so that they could advise and educate pet owners.