China built the world's largest animal duplication plant

Chinese scientists believe that the plant will produce thousands of cloned cows to meet the demand for beef consumption in the world's most populous country.

China built animal replication factory

According to Guardian, Xu Xiaochun, chief executive of Boyalife Group, said it invested $ 31.3 million to build a factory in Tianjin, the port city about 160km north of Beijing. The plant will start operating next year.

"We are going the road no one has ever gone," he said. "We are building something unprecedented in the past."

Animal replication plant is about to go into operation in 2016 in Tianjin.(Photo: Boyalife).

The factory is 14,000 square meters, focusing on cloning cows to meet the growing demand for beef consumption in China. Beef prices in China have tripled, from 2000 to 2013, while supplies are always in short supply.

Boyalife hopes to produce 100,000 good-quality cloned cows in the first phase, and increase to one million in the second phase. In addition, the plant will also replicate endangered species in the world.

"This will change the world and our lives , " Xu said. "It will make life brighter. Therefore, we are very excited about this project."

The factory is the latest step in China's efforts to become a pioneer in the field of humanity. Scientists have successfully cloned cows, pigs and sheep. Even a company in Shenzhen cloned on an industrial scale with 500 pigs a year.

"We can replicate on a large scale , " said Yutao Du, a Tianjin project scientist. The factory in Tianjin is a partner of Seoul-based biotech Soam, a Korean-based company, CEO Hwang Woo-suk, dubbed the "human king".

In China, where many major food safety scandals occur, the state media are seeking to convince people that Xu's human consumption is extremely safe.

China hopes the new factory will meet the beef consumption demand of the people of this country.(Photo: AP).

"Cloned beef is safe for human health , " said Zhang Yong, professor of veterinary science, Northwestern Agriculture and Forestry University, Shaanxi Province.

"I can say that cloned beef is the best beef I've ever eaten," Boyalife's director said.

Cloned meat and dairy cattle are classified as safe by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDI), and allow production to be widely sold since 2008. At that time, many animal protection organizations and consumers expressed concern about the safety of this food for human health.

However, according to Scientific America, no clinical trials have been conducted to assess the effect of cloned meat and animal products on humans.