Abstract:
The concept of clone-family testing is compared with existing progeny testingsystems. The critical factors that will decide how cloning is utilized are thepotential size of cloned families, and the cost per embryo (or per calf born).If family sizes of 100 000 become routinely achievable (cheaply), then clonetesting becomes viable. In rough figures, cloned embryos costing $30with a 50% calving rate would be attractive to farmers and would becheap enough that farmers would buy more (crossbred) embryos in order to breedfurther replacement cows. At $300 per embryo, farmers would be moreinclined to buy a number of cloned pure-bred female embryos and then to useconventional artificial insemination to breed further replacements from thesesuperior cows. At $3000 per embryo, farmers would probably only beinterested in very small numbers of cloned animals, most of which would bemales. The relative importance of adult versus fetal cloning is discussed. Theneed for gene banks to preserve genetic variation is emphasized; both gametesand somatic tissue cultures should be considered.