[PyrNet-L] March DogWorld article on Cryopreservation/Cloning

[Kshoffman@aol.com]

March issue of Dog World has a great article on Cryopreserving for Cloning 
purposes by Thorpe-Vargas, Cargill et al.  As I mentioned not too far back, 
looks like the technology to clone our dogs is right around the corner.  The 
article touches upon overuse of popular sires, and inbreeding/linebreeding 
both being partly responsible for the increase in genetic defects in 
purebreds.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to this article is the "challenge offer" 
for those who have a dog or bitch truly worthy of perpetuating its breed.(G) 
If you have a suitable nominee, the Canine Cryobank and Lazaron Bio 
Technologies make offers to store free for one year the cells from the first 
animal presented for collection by June 2000.  They have a required criteria:

Veteran (7 years or older)
Champion of record (bench, field or obedience)
OFA "Excellent" or PennHIP distraction index 0.3 or less
Current CERF
Normal Thyroid levels
Clear von Willebrand's disease
Non-diabetic
 
Of course the hope for this type of technology is that we might be able to 
preserve DNA from exceptional representatives of a breed (health, 
temperament, and otherwise) with the hope of reducing frequencies of genetic 
defects via genetic engineering, or down the road have the ability to 
reintroducing genetic material that may be lost or go extinct from the entire 
population. Manipulation of the canine genome may be possible someday using 
recombinant DNA techniques presently in development.

Kelley Hoffman
kshoffman@aol.com