SEMEN FROM CLONED STUD ANIMALS IS AVAILABLE TO BUY ONLINE…
In agriculture, clones of high-value breeding animals are being produced for breeding purposes. For example, Final Answer was a naturally conceived bull so buff he became one of the most prolific sires of the Angus cattle breed. During his life, he produced more than 500,000 units of semen, which were used to father hundreds of thousands of offspring via artificial insemination.
Cloning is relatively routine in the cattle industry, so as Final Answer entered his twilight years, breeders made a copy. In 2014, when Final Answer finally died, Final Answer II took over. His sperm is no different from that of the original, and now a single shot retails online for around $22 (almost £17). Hundreds of other, similarly valuable cattle have also been cloned, so here the technique is being used as an insurance policy. “Having an heir and a spare is not a bad concept,” says agricultural geneticist Alison van Eenennaam, from the University of California, Davis.