China to build world's largest animal cloning centre

The main building of the center is already under construction

Beijing

: China is planning to build the world's largest animal cloning centre that will produce one million cattle embryos annually and rapidly improve the quality of livestock, a media report said on Tuesday.

The 200 million yuan (USD 31.3 million) commercial cloning centre will be built in Tianjin city's Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area (TEDA), a government-sponsored business development park.

The main building of the center is already under construction and due to be completed by June next year, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Among the animals to be cloned in the centre include sniffer and pet dogs, high-grade beef cattle, racehorses and "non-human primates". These animals will be used for commercial services and improving breeds.

The project could rapidly improve the quality of livestock and bring the controversial science one step closer to mainstream acceptance, the report said. Sinica, a subsidiary of Wuxi-based Boyalife Group which focuses on stem cell and regenerative medicine research, signed the agreement with TEDA on Friday.

The centre will be jointly built by Sinica, Peking University's Institute of Molecular Medicine, the Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biomedicine and South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

Boyalife chairman Xu Xiaochun said the centre would produce 100,000 cattle embryos a year before expanding annual output to one million.

Xu said Chinese farmers had struggled to breed enough beef cattle to meet market demand and the centre would be the largest of its kind in the world.

The factory also plans to set up a cloning lab, a gene bank and a science education centre.