World's first cloned dog becomes a father

SEOUL, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- South Korean scientists say Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, has become a father after the world's first successful breeding of cloned canines.

Seoul National University officials said the Afghan hound impregnated two cloned dogs of the same breed through artificial insemination. The scientists said the whelping marks the first time that puppies have been born from cloned parents. One of the 10 puppies born May 14-18 died, but nine remain healthy.

"This shows the reproductive ability of a cloned dog," said Professor Lee Byung-chun, whose team created Snuppy in 2005 and also produced the world's first cloned wolves. This year he has cloned dogs capable of sniffing out human cancers.

The breeding of cloned dogs "opens the way for cloning sniffer dogs and seeing-eye guide dogs, which usually have to be sterilized for training and lose the ability to reproduce," Lee said.