Following a number of successful dog clonings, China’s first cloned kitten is expected to be born in early 2019, paving the way for cloned pets to become mainstream.

Sinogene, a Beijing-based biotech company, will use the same technology that was used to clone Dolly the sheep to create the kitty clone, which is expected to be born in March.

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It also offers a dog cloning service, which costs $55,117. So far it has created 10 dogs, with another 10 currently being gestated.

The company’s process means it takes from six to 10 months to clone an animal. The biotech firm sees huge potential for pet cloning in China.

“Even though they are not totally the same as the original pet, the clone still offers strong emotional sustenance for their owners," Sinogene manager Zhao Jianping told Global Times.

In order to create a cloned pet, a sample of tissue must be taken within a week of the pet dying, or when it’s still alive. Scientists then use a donor animal’s egg and replace the nucleus with the cell of the animal that is being cloned. The embryo is then put inside a surrogate animal.

The first dog to be cloned was an Afghan hound called Tai. He was cloned by scientists at Seoul National University in 2005, who later re-cloned the cloned Tai for further study.



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