A team of Chinese researchers successfully cloned a Rhesus monkey for the first time, a species whose biology closely resembles that of humans and is widely used in medical research. According to the BBC, the specimen survived healthily for two years, marking a significant breakthrough in a technique that had previously experienced high failure rates.
For years, scientists unsuccessfully attempted to clone this species: the embryos did not come to term or the offspring died shortly after birth. The recent achievement represents a milestone for the Chinese scientific community, which had already cloned monkeys in the past, but considers the Rhesus monkey more valuable due to its genetic proximity to humans.
Cloning involves creating an identical genetic copy through an embryo implanted in a surrogate mother. However, this technique is surrounded by controversies. Animal rights organizations, such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in the UK, expressed their concern about the suffering it entails for animals, as well as the low success rate, which ranges between 1% and 3%.
“The RSPCA is deeply concerned about the large number of animals suffering in these experiments. Primates are intelligent and sensitive beings, not mere laboratory tools,” the organization stated.
The precedent of Dolly the sheep
In the European Union, legislation prohibits the cloning of primates for scientific purposes, except in exceptional cases related to severe diseases that directly affect humans or primates, which does not apply to this experiment, according to the Science Media Center.
The project leaders in China ensure they have the necessary ethical approval and that their intention is to refine the technique to reduce the number of embryos used. They explain that the goal is to advance in the study of complex diseases such as cancer, leveraging the potential of Rhesus monkeys as biomedical models.
The news reopens the debate on animal cloning, which had its most media moment in 1996 with the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. Since then, the technique has been applied in at least 20 species, but its use in primates continues to generate deep ethical divisions.
Rhesus monkey. Photo: Social media.
First offspring of a cloned animal in danger of extinction see the light
In a demonstration of the possibilities offered by cloning for the conservation of an endangered animal, US scientists succeeded in having black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) offspring born from a cloned mother. This ferret is seriously threatened with extinction on the planet.
The loss of genetic diversity is one of the factors that favor the extinction of a species. In the case of the black-footed ferret, all specimens descend from only seven individuals, exposing them to severe diseases.
The cloned mother, Antonia, and her sister clones, Elizabeth-Ann and Noreen, were created using frozen cells from a deceased individual named Willa, whose genetic material contains three times the genetic variations of current ferrets.
Source: The Daily Digest.
