A Texas company says it has cloned two champion cutting horses but it remains to be seen if the U.S. horse industry will make it commercially viable. ViaGen, based in Austin, announced it had cloned the horses at $150,000 each and that up to 30 more cloned horses would be created in the next year, The Washington Post reports.
The company, with a top cloning scientist, is believed to be capable of doing the needed lab work to meets its goal.
But cloning has been prohibited by those who protect the purity of elite horse racing in the United States, says The Post.
"What we do is part business and part fun, and it's part science and part art. If it becomes pure business and pure science, I don't want to play anymore," said Dan Rosenberg, head of Three Chimneys Farm, a leading thoroughbred race horse breeder in Kentucky. The American Quarter Horse Association has barred the registration of any clone.
On the other side, a small European group involved in jumping horses has decided to register clones. It is also possible that the anti-clone rules may come under legal attack as being unfair restraints of trade.
