From the end of October to the beginning of November this year, the team succeeded in cloning 20 pigs of a local breed using homegrown equipment and reagents.

"Cloning cat somatic cells demanded more resources in terms of facilities, reagents and materials compared with pig cells," Zhao said.

Yuan Bao, a professor at Jilin University and president of Jinlin Association for Laboratory Animal Sciences, said the success in cloning a cat was not only a big breakthrough in Chinese animal cloning technology but also represented advancement in high-end equipment manufacturing, precision machining and chemical engineering in China.

The achievement will boost confidence in domestic equipment, reagents and material suppliers and help generate more high-end homegrown products in the biomedical sector, Yuan said.

He said these will be more widely applied and will enhance China's position and influence globally.