12/4/98

CONTENTS: QUESTIONS FROM CLIENTS ABOUT CLONE
ADVENTURES OF THE SPERMMOBILE
QUESTIONS ON FOREIGN COLLECTIONS/LITTER NEWS

    A.F.D., a breeder from New York faxed the following questions about cloning.  I thought other breeders may be interested in his questions and my answers.

1. If canine transfers are successful with researchers where and under what conditions would a cloning for a client be done?

ANSWER: On demand, as any elective procedure.

2. In purebred dogs, would it be a cloning for a litter or a single clone implanted into the host?

ANSWER: Whichever the client wants.

3. Who would have control of the host or surrogate mother?

ANSWER: Depends on the circumstances.  Some owners have plans to use their own bitches as I am sure that would be most cost effective.

4. Could one guesstimate the total cost of the procedure? What happens expense wise if resulting in failure?

ANSWER: Some costs are already known. Cell harvesting depends on the person harvesting the cells. Some vets charged close to $100.00 for the cell harvest, others charged
nothing when done at the time of another procedure, owners who do their own harvesting just incur the kit price of  $125.00 plus shipping.  Cell processing into cultures costs $365.00 and $75.00 per year storage (same as frozen semen). Growing cells to embryo transfer stage is done
many times a day at livestock cloning facilities throughout the world already, however canine and feline and equine clone embryos may need specific "tweaking".   
     For many reasons, failures happen all the time in medicine, human or animal.  Not once have I ever heard of a medical doctor refund the $10,000 cost of fertiltiy enhancement protocols or offer to do the next multiple tries for a successful   human conception.  So I am sure animal owners will be paying for procedures, puppies or not.
   
5.  If living puppies resulted using this technology would the American
Kennel Club recognize with full registration such offspring.?

ANSWER:  It is up to the AKC to make the registration decision. However,  not one of our clone clients worries about it. I personally think AKC will eventually register clones...afterall, they are mandated to keep the stud books on purebred dogs and a clone of a purebred is a purebred.  Record keeping for AKC doesn't need be any more complicated than adding c1 or c2 or c3 etc to the AKC number of the original dog. For example, WD123123/01/c1 would be the clone of WD123123/01. I did have an interesting conversation with a woman who wants her
championship certificates also to apply to the clone. AKC may have a problem with that aspect of the clone issue.
     For clients cloning  their animals while the cell donor dog is alive, I am not sure that resulting clones would be able to be identified as a clone by AKC current DNA tests.  I have a handful of clients wishing to test that hypothesis right now!!! So AKC may need to register clones to assure the accuracy of the stud books.  


SPERM MOBILE ADVENTURES/GO NAVY: Clients seeing us at the Escondido lab
know the "Sperm mobile" is a landmark in the San Diego area.  The new home page: www.caninecryobank.com has a picture of the last sperm mobile. As you can imagine, we have many stories about the sperm mobile.  Two years ago Canadian Schutzhund trainer, international competitor Joanne Plumb swung by the lab on a California trip to show their traveling companion the sperm mobile.  The snapshots of themselves in the sperm mobile
were shown all over their small Canadian town to convince anyone who had doubts about California weird culture. This week, the Sperm Mobile and Carol did something completely NON DOGGY!  After being stopped by several white gloved sentries, the Sperm Mobile was allowed on the Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado Island to attend the retirement ceremonies of Vice Admiral L. Brien on the USS Constellation. (I had an appointment later in the day so I met my friend in Coronado thinking we would use his car to go on base but time schedules became compromised and we had to take Sperm Mobile on base.) As fate would have it, they parked us right in front for everyone who is anyone in the Navy could see it.  I hope its presence didn't diminish the moving retirement ceremony of Admiral Brien, one of America's
contemporary heros. I noticed the Admiral degreed in Biology and was raised on a cattle farm in S. Dakota so I am sure if he saw the vehicle, he recognized the decals!

FOREIGN COLLECTIONS: Bernese Mountain dog breeder Gail Taplac from Northern California asked if she could collect a Swedish stud herself because the freezing costs are so high in Sweden. Because our customs does not require the dog to have any testing, she could save  money by not having to pay for lab tests not required for our import regulations. I'll look into the possibility. Gail attended one of our instructional seminars years ago and successfully handles her stud's collection and fresh AIs.

PROGESTERONE TESTING STORY OF THE WEEK: Gail also reports her bitch which she brought down to breed to Lisa Peltzer super stud( he just sired 10 pups) is pregnant. Gail had to take some cooled semen home because the progesterone showed the bitch would be ready the day that Gail was expected back "on the job"  in Northern Cal.  So we did the best we could; bred her and then sent cooled semen with Gail to inseminate more timely.  Congratulations, Gail and Lisa. Keep those home pages coming.  Version one of our page is up: Caninecryobank.com  however, second version was lost in cyberspace so we still are reassembling.

Best Wishes,

Carol Scott Bardwick