The world's first cloned sniffer dogs have reported for their first day of training in Seoul, South Korea.
The world\'s first cloned sniffer dogs have begun their training in South Korea. Image: South Korea. Credit: Wikipedia
Seven puppies were born in late 2007 under a government scheme and six have passed their first round of behavioural and genetic qualities tests to become sniffer dogs, the Korea Customs Service told AFP.
"They will report for duty in June after completing a second round of training," said customs spokesman Lee Ho.
The puppies, all named Toppy (tomorrow's puppy) were born and are identical to their Golden Retriever father Chase via a transfer of the nuclei of his somatic cells to surrogate mothers.
The project was carried out by a team of Seoul National University veterinarians led by Lee Byeong-chun and was commissioned by the Korea Customs Service because they considered training clones of a sniffer dog would be easier than breeding them.
The dogs must have the correct genetic makeup to perform the tasks.
Project manager Lim Jae-Yong told AFP the project was successful adding that "...this is the first time that cloned dogs have been used as sniffer dogs."
The cloned puppies will now begin extensive training designed to teach them to recognise the smell of different drugs until the middle of next year.
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