Boyalife in China to launch biggest animal cloning factory in 2016
Livestock companyBoyalife in China is ready to roll out a giant animal cloning factory by next year. It hopes to generate 5 percent of the meat requirements in China.
To meet the increasing demand for cattle, Boyalife has tied hands with South Korean company Sooam Biotech and has planned to invest $31 million (200 million yuan) towards this initiative. The project operations are said to begin in 2016 at Tianjin City.
Apart from cloning livestock for farming, the project will also produce dogs, horses as well as cloning of family pets for around $1 million each. The commercial giant animal cloning center is located in the government sponsored Economic-Technological Development area in the city of Tianjin, which is around 100 miles from Beijing.
The whole factory occupies a space of 14,000 square meters which will be designed and built by Boyalife to start the dream project in 2016.
The cloning factory will also address in serving the nature by rescuing endangered species from the verge of extinction.
Xu Xiaochun, the CEO of Boyalife told The Guardian, "We are going [down] a path that no one has ever travelled, we are building something that has not existed in the past."
Mr. Xu plans to employ 300 staff for this massive venture. "This is going to change our world and our lives. It is going to make our life better. So we are very, very excited about it." Mr. Xu added to his statement to The Guardian.
According to a report by Hong Kong South China Morning Post, for more than 15 years, scientists in China have been into the cloning of livestock, pigs and sheep. While Mr Xu confidently states that consuming cloned animals is safe for health, the European Food Safety Authority stated that eating the meat of cloned animals results in animal welfare as well as health hazards and problems.
However, the US Food and Drug Administration is confident that cloned animal meat is safe to eat.
In a post by Xinhua News Media, China came up with its first commercial cloning company in September 2014, with the birth of three puppies of Tibetan mastiff species. Since then China is all set to experiment world's largest cloning factory soon.
Even before this, scientists have cloned cattle, mice and other animals ever since 1996 when the first clones sheep was born on July5, 1996. Many companies prior to this have shown interest in animal husbandry in investing in the new technology for commercial purpose and use.