Britain has got its first cloned dog named “mini Winnie”, after an owner of a dachshund won a competition.
The 12-year-old dachshund was reproduced, after a sample of her skin tissue was taken and stored in liquid nitrogen before being transported to South Korea, the Mirror reported.
The dog’s cells were put into eggs from a donor dog of the same breed in Seoul and a spark of electricity then created a cloned embryo which was in turn transferred into a surrogate dog.
Owner Rebecca Smith said that she saw it being born and it looks exactly like her pet, and she will be regularly updated about the clone with videos and photos.
She said that she has a much closed attachment with her dog, and as her “sausage” dog is 12-years-old and wouldn’t be around, getting her cloned was a good idea.
Winnie was chosen by a party of executives from cloning company Sooam Biotech who travelled to the UK to pick three dogs from a shortlist before presenting each case to the company.
Sooam Biotech , now hopes that more owners will come forward and pay 60,000 pounds for the procedure and get their beloved pooches cloned. (ANI)