First-ever cloned dog born in South Korea

A team of South Korean scientists has announced the birth of the world's first cloned dog in a technical breakthrough.

A team of South Korean scientists has announced the birth of the world's first cloned dog in a technical breakthrough with the potential to help revolutionise treatment for incurable human diseases.

Hwang Woo-Suk and his colleagues at Seoul National University (SNU) said the cloned dog was born in April 24 at the university's animal hospital through caesarian section.

The canine clone has been named Snuppy, a combination of the university's initials and "puppy".

It was seen romping around on the lawn outside Hwang's lab at the SNU, together with the father, a three-year-old black Afghan hound, and the four-year-old surrogate mother, a golden retriever.

"We have succeeded in cloning man's best friend for the first time in the world," Hwang told a press conference on Wednesday. Reports of the conference were embargoed till Thursday.

Hwang and his team made international headlines in February 2004 when they announced the first-ever cloning of human embryos, from which they harvested "therapeutic" embryonic stem cells which would cause no immune rejection.

Snuppy was created using "somatic cell nucleus transfer" technology in which an adult ear-skin cell from the male Afghan hound was planted in an unfertilised egg, or oocyte, whose nucleus had been removed.

A total of 1,095 embryos created through this method were transferred into 123 recipients -- surrogate mother dogs -- and three pregnancies were successfully established.

One foetus miscarried but two others grew to be delivered, including Snuppy.