JUST JUDY’S THOUGHTS
by JUDY THOMPSON, OHA
“CAN WE CLONE OUR GREATEST SHOW DOGS? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, SHOULD WE?”
D og breeders have been using frozen semen and artificial insemination (AI) for quite some time. This process enabled them to breed to sires in distant locales and even to sires that had long since crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. It is certainly nothing new. Then in July of 2015, seven puppies were born through in vitro fertiliza- tion (IVF). This was the culmination of attempts since the 1970s, when it was first successful in humans. But the pro- cess proved more difficult in canines. Canine sperm cannot immediately fer- tilize an egg. The sperm have a coating that must be broken down by the chem- icals in a bitch’s uterus. That chemical bath removes the coating that protects the sperm’s DNA information. It also helps the sperm burrow into the egg so that the DNA can be deposited. In addition, bitch’s eggs are also not imme- diately viable. They must remain in the oviducts for some time before fertiliza- tion can take place. It took scientists many years to replicate the chemicals in the uterus and learn the correct timing to create new cells, cells which could
then be frozen and later implanted in a surrogate bitch. In this instance, 19 embryos were transferred to the host bitch. Of the seven that survived, five were from Beagle-Beagle pairings and two were from Beagle-Cocker Spaniel pairings. Apparently, scientists were curious as to whether or not they could success- fully cross breed using IVF. (I am guess- ing the bitch herself was grateful she did not have a litter of 19 to care for, and I fear for any future host bitch that may find herself in that situation.) But our scientific accomplishments did not stop there. Since 1996, we have had the ability to clone mammals from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. Dolly the sheep was cloned that year after
227 failed attempts. Dolly lived for roughly half the average life span of a Finn Dorset and developed arthritis at the age of four. That brings us to two questions: can we clone our greatest show dogs? And more importantly, should we? Let’s first look at what happened when cloning was brought to another sport—polo. Aiken Cura is the name of a chestnut stallion with a white blaze beloved by Adolfo Cambiaso, a gifted Argentinean polo player. In 2006, after an important polo championship, Aiken Cura’s left foreleg suddenly gave out and had to be amputated. Before he was forced to euthanize his stallion, Cambi- aso asked a veterinarian to save a small sample of cells from the horse’s neck, freeze it and store it in a laboratory. Fast forward to today. Aiken Cura E01, another chestnut stallion with a white blaze, is galloping across polo fields in Argentina. He is the product of cloning technology and he is not alone. Cambiaso partnered with two wealthy polo enthusiasts to form Crestview
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