China Unveils First Cloned Horse

The first cloned horse born and officially approved in China was presented to reporters in Beijing on Thursday, in a development that opens up new horizons for the country’s equestrian sport.

Cloning of thoroughbred or high-bred horses has been a practice in many countries since the early 2000s, mainly for genetic improvement.

In China, Guang Guang, a horse born to a surrogate mother last June, developed at the “Cyanogen” laboratory in Beijing, is a clone of a horse imported from Germany.

This black animal is the first “warm-blooded” horse born in China to be officially recognized by the China Equestrian Industry Federation.

The classification of “warm-blooded” generally applies to light horse breeds with a lively temperament.

Equestrian sports, especially show jumping, have flourished in China in recent years. However, shortage of high-performance horses and delay in breeding technology are limiting this growth

“I have spoken to (Chinese) riders who participate in the Olympic Games. Each of them has more than one horse, usually two or three. Each horse costs from a few million to tens of millions of yuan,” Mi Zhidong, head of Cyanogen Laboratories, told AFP. It is about one and a half million dollars.

“Cloning will help reduce the cost of breeding and breeding horses,” he added.

The world’s first cloned horse was born in Italy in 2003.

Chinese animal cloning companies have made great strides in recent years, and the techniques are used on sheep, cows, pigs, dogs and even cats.