Posted by VP Editor on Friday, May 12th, 2023 in
As a species’ numbers dwindle, so does its genetic diversity—the range of inherited characteristics within its population. Generally, the more diverse the gene pool, the longer animals live and the more offspring they have, boosting their chances of survival. But once their population has dramatically shrunk, even if the species rebounds, genetic variation does not. […]
Posted by VP Editor on Friday, April 21st, 2023 in
On February 17, 2023, ViaGen Pets and Equine, working with the esteemed San Diego Zoo, successfully cloned a second endangered Przewalksi horse. Just like the first clone, born in 2020, this clone was created from a horse cryopreserved by the San Diego Zoo in 1980. Read the full story here.
Posted by VP Editor on Wednesday, April 19th, 2023 in
The holidays came early for conservation biologists in 2020 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on 10 December that scientists had successfully cloned a wild black-footed ferret—using DNA from a ferret that died years earlier. Photographs flashed around the world, showing the slender, playful, khaki-colored kit. Read the full story here.
Posted by VP Editor on Friday, June 10th, 2022 in
Kelly Anderson never planned to clone Chai. But when tragedy took her beloved 5-year-old Ragdoll in 2017, a mere two weeks after she learned of a Cedar Park biotech company helping the bereaved resurrect their pets, she felt it was fate. Four years later, she brought home Belle, the spitting image of her beverage-named bestie. […]
Posted by VP Editor on Monday, April 18th, 2022 in
Social media influencers are at the center of a growing debate over pet cloning, a special science that uses technology to clone animals. NBC’s Jacob Ward reports for TODAY on how it works to create “identical twins” in a process similar to IVF using skin samples. See the video here.