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 Meet Cc - a cute ball of fur with the controversial distinction of being the world's first cloned cat.
To the joy and consternation of animal lovers, her birth could lead to a new industry, the large-scale cloning of pets.
Cc, the carbon copy cat, was created by a team at Texas A&M University with the backing of an American businessman, John Sperling, whose company plans to offer cloning to cat and dog owners.
Mr Sperling has put $US3.7 million into cloning research in the hope a copy can eventually be made of his aging long-haired dog, Missy.
Carlie Martin, of the Australian Association for Humane Research, said the cloning of cats was an appalling development.
Other cloned animals had been found to have high rates of abnormalities.
And a favourite pet could never be replaced by a clone, because each animal was an individual.
"It's just a money-making exercise," Ms Martin said.
Sheep, mice, cattle, goats and pigs have been cloned, Dolly-style, by transferring the nucleus of a cell from an adult animal into a hollowed-out egg.
The success rate with cats was as low as with these animals. Cc, born two months ago, was the only live birth from 87 cloned embryos that were implanted in surrogate mothers.
Cc was cloned from a cell taken from near the ovary of a tortoiseshell cat, but she is not a carbon copy of her DNA donor. Her individuality is obvious from her slightly different coat pattern.
The researchers said this was because the appearance of multi-coloured animals depends not just on genetics, but on other factors during their development.
(Agencies)
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初次見到茜茜，它是只小毛球一樣的可愛的小貓咪。茜茜是如此的與眾不同，因為它是世界上第一只克隆貓。
對于寵物愛好者來說，茜茜的出生讓他們既歡欣鼓舞，又感到一絲惶恐，因為這只克隆貓咪的出生可能會引領一個全新產業的發展--大規模的寵物克隆。
美國德克薩斯州A&M大學的一個研究小組成功培育了克隆貓咪茜茜。該小組得到了一位名為約翰·斯珀林的美國商人的資助。斯珀林的公司正計劃向養貓、養狗的人們提供克隆寵物的服務
斯珀林先生已經向克隆研究提供了370萬美金的資助，他希望該項研究能夠成功克隆出他的那只年邁的長毛狗密西。
 然而澳大利亞人道主義研究協會的卡利·馬丁卻認為這些美國科學家克隆貓的行為十分的可怕。
克隆動物出現畸形和異常的幾率相當高。
克隆寵物是無法替代深受主人喜愛的寵物的，因為每一只動物都是獨一無二的。
馬丁女士說："這（克隆貓試驗）只是一種商業行為。"
至今為止，科學家們已經陸續成功克隆了綿羊、老鼠、牛、山羊和豬，這些動物克隆的方式都和第一只克隆動物多利綿羊是相同的，即把成年動物細胞中（含有遺傳物質）的細胞核植入去核的卵細胞中，（并使兩者融合，融合體分裂發育成克隆動物。）
克隆貓的成功率和克隆其他動物的成功率一樣都不是很高。兩個月前出生的茜茜是迄今為止植入"代媽媽"體內87個克隆胚胎中唯一存活下來的。
茜茜是由一只花貓卵巢旁的細胞克隆而來，但是她和她的"母體"并非長得一模一樣，她們的皮毛花紋還是有所不同的。
研究者解釋說，這是因為花毛的動物，它們皮毛的顏色不僅僅和遺傳有關，還和后天成長發育過程中的其他因素有關。
(中國日報網站譯)
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Updated: 2002-02-20 01:00
