By Catrina Thomen, Arts Editor
ViaGen Pets began in January 2002 in Austin, Texas. The company's projects include creating commercial cows, cloning, and genetic preservation. Over the past 19 years, ViaGen has expanded across the world. All non-primate animal cloning today is completed by ViaGen’s corporation through either ViaGen Livestock, ViaGen Equine, or ViaGen Pets.
The company grew early on by doubling cloning capacity in 2003 and got the rights to cloning technology developed by the Roslin Institute of Edinburgh, Scotland, who cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996. Dolly was the first animal to be successfully cloned.
“I think the real surprise to everybody was the fact that it came from an adult cell,” professor of Veterinary Pathobiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Michael Roberts said. “This adult cell could be reprogrammed and then made to act as though it was completely youthful again.”
In 2007, ViaGen began its partnership with Trans Ova Genetics until 2012 when the latter company absorbed ViaGens shares making it a wholly-owned subsidiary. Trans Ova Genetics is boasts the leading reproductive technologies for cows. They offer in-vitro fertilization (IVF), sexed-semen, genetic preservation, and embryo transfers.
ViaGen clones many breeds of animal through their different sub companies. ViaGen Livestock works to clone farm animals, ViaGen Equine clones horses, and ViaGen Pets handles the cloning of dogs and cats. The first successful cloning of a dog was in 2005 by a South Korean team when they produced a genetic copy through a sample of ear tissue. However, the pet cloning subcompany of ViaGen (ViaGen Pets) only began in 2015.
Denise Westervelt is a customer of ViaGen Pets who had two genetic clones made of her late chihuahua Peanut who had passed unexpectedly of heart issues.
“If he could have lived forever, it would have been great. I couldn’t bear to get another dog,” Westervelt said. “They even sound the same way when they bark, exactly the same back when he was a puppy, I was so excited, At least there is an option to have a piece of them.”
The cloning process begins with the genetic preservation of the animal through a tissue sample. The gestational period is between 60 to 65 days followed by a 56 day nursing period. Both cloning for dogs and cats is paid in two installments. However, cloning for dogs is substantially higher. Cat cloning costs are $35,000, but dog cloning costs go all the way up to $50,000.
“All these companies are promising is the same genome as your old cat or dog,” journalist Jessica Baron said. “They can't control how that genome is expressed in the real world.”
The thing to keep in mind about animal cloning, especially for pets, is that the clone is only a genetic copy. Though the cloned animal will share all the physical attributes of the original donor, the genetic copy won’t share the personality of the donor animal.
More information can be found at www.ViagenPets.com.
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