China clones the first rhesus monkey – are humans next?

EXPERTS have successfully cloned a healthy rhesus monkey for the first time, potentially bringing scientists a step closer to cloning humans.

Chinese researchers used the same process that led to Dolly the sheep in 1996 to create a male monkey, now two years old.

The successful use of the technique – called somatic cell nuclear transfer – follows multiple failed attempts of cloning this species.

It involves removing the DNA from an egg, replacing it with ‘donor’ DNA.

The resulting embryo is put into a surrogate, who gives birth to the clone. The DNA of the cloned rhesus monkey in China, named ReTro, was compared with that of the embryo it had been cloned from – and was found to be identical. It was the only survivor of 113 initial embryos.

Cats and dogs are among 23 mammal species to have also been cloned this way, but monkeys are the most human-like animals to be successfully replicated.

Researchers behind the development, published in the journal Nature Communication, said their strategy may prove promising for cloning primates in the future – potentially offering hope of treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other illnesses.

It comes six years after the same team, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, created a pair of identical macaques. The researchers said then: ‘A macaque monkey is a primate species, humans are primates – the technical barrier is now broken.’

But Dr Lluís Montoliu, researcher at the National Center for Biotechnology in Spain, said it is ‘extremely difficult to succeed’.

Yesterday, the RSPCA claimed any human applications would be ‘years away’.

A spokesman said: ‘Primates are intelligent and sentient animals, not research tools.’