Equine Cloning and Its Impact on Production

Abstract

Horses hold significant economic value due to their diverse roles in sports, recreation,and agriculture. Cloning has emerged as a prominent reproductive biotechnologyin equines, proving more reliable than other techniques such assuperovulation or in vitro fertilization. Cloning offers advantages like geneticreplication of elite individuals, preservation of valuable genetics, and acceleratedbreeding programs. Various techniques exist for equine cloning, including traditionalsomatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and zona pellucida-free (ZP-free)embryo production. In this work, we will summarize the methodology of eachtechnique, discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and provide a brief overviewof the epigenetic deficiencies that still persist in cloned embryos, showingthat there is still much work to be done to understand the mechanisms underlyingcloning in equids.