SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korean famous scientist Hwang Woo-suk showed his masterpiece on Wednesday to local and foreign reporters at the campus of the Seoul National University -- a three-month-old cloned male Afghan hound named "Snuppy".

    Snuppy is the first cloned dog in the world.

    The famed international journal Nature published an article about Hwang's new research in its latest edition issued on Thursday. And Hwang asked reporters to embargo the report of Snuppy until early Thursday.

    After Wednesday's press conference, Hwang's team let Snuppy, the donor dog and Snuppy's surrogate mother - a Labrador, to meet the reporters.

    The puppy looked very alike the donor dog. Both have black, long and thick coat, both have relatively small heads contrast to their big body.

    The nearly 40 centimeters tall Snuppy currently has a weight of11 kilograms, a normal level of its age.

    "DNA analysis of the puppy showed them to be genetically identical to the donor dog - an Afghan hound," said Hwang at the press conference.

    Hwang's research teams again used the somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technology to clone an Afghan hound.

    One year ago, Hwang stunned the world by announcing his team successfully extracting stem cell lines from cloned human embryos.

    According to Hwang, his team first took an ear-skin biopsy of the male Afghan hound. Then they injected the somatic cells into oocytes procured from female dogs which were already squeezed out their nucleus.

    A total of 1,095 reconstructed canine embryos were transferred into 123 female dogs. But only three were confirmed pregnant, and unfortunately, one fetus miscarried.

    The yellow Labrador gave birth to Snuppy on April 24, 2005. Onemonth later, the second cloned dog was born. But it died on day 22due to aspiration pneumonia.

    Hwang said the importance of the study of cloned dog is mainly the therapeutic cloning.

    Hwang said dogs always have the same illness as mankind, such as diabetes. The research establishes the possibility for production of genetically identical animal models for the study ofveterinary and human disease processes and treatment pathways.

    Hwang's team has already successfully cloned sheep, mouse, cow,pig, rabbit, cat, mule, horse, deer and rattle in the past eight years.

    But the professor said on Wednesday he gave up the research of cloning primates because he deemed that the primates can not be cloned with current technology.

    The scientist added that he "will concentrate on researching the stem cells of monkeys, but will not attempt to clone a primate".

    Hwang also declined to reveal what his next target of cloning and the current status of his canine stem cell research at the press conference. Enditem