Scientists in California say they have cloned a dog that helped with the search-and-rescue after the 9/11 attacks on New York in 2001.
Five German Shepherd puppies cloned from a dog named Trakr were delivered to owner James Symington. Sponsor BioArts says it cloned Trakr in collaboration with a laboratory in South Korea.
Doctors at the lab say they replaced the genes in eggs from unrelated dogs with genes from the German Shepherd, stimulated the resulting "couplets" to develop into embryos, then transferred the embryos to dogs who served as surrogate mothers.
After normal pregnancies, the surrogate moms gave birth to puppies that the scientists say are genetically identical to Trakr. The first pup was born on December 8th, 2008 and the last on April 4th, 2009. BioArts says all are in excellent health.
