Kunxun goes through a test at Kunming Police Dog Base in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 22, 2019. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

China's first cloned police dog Kunxun, 8-month-old, officially becomes a police dog after training.

BEIJING, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's first cloned police dog Kunxun has finished her training in Yunnan Province and was officially accepted as a police dog on Thursday.

Kunxun goes through a test with Li Hua, head of the police dog squad with the public security bureau of Pu'er City, at Kunming Police Dog Base in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 22, 2019. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Kunxun goes through a test with Li Hua, head of the police dog squad with the public security bureau of Pu'er City, at Kunming Police Dog Base in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 22, 2019. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Kunxun prepares to take a test at Kunming Police Dog Base in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 22, 2019. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Kunxun prepares to take a test at Kunming Police Dog Base in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 22, 2019. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Kunxun, a female of the Kunming wolfdog breed, was born on Dec. 19 last year in Beijing and arrived on March 5 for training at the Kunming Police Dog Base of the Ministry of Public Security.

She was cloned from a 7-year-old female dog, known as Huahuangma, that has been in service in the city of Pu'er, Yunnan, by Sinogene, a Beijing-based biotechnology firm. The cloning is part of the ministry's research program.

Huahuangma played important roles in helping detectives with dozens of murder investigations, and was accredited the first-level merit in 2016, said Wan Jiusheng, an officer who is responsible for training Kunxun.

Huahuangma's outstanding abilities as a police dog made her an eligible donor of genes, Wan said.

"It takes four to five years to train a meritorious dog such as Huahuangma, and costs hundreds of thousands of yuan," he said.

Police dogs serving in real tasks are not usually used for breeding. The cloning program helps researchers copy their excellent genes and reduces the time and costs needed for training, researchers familiar with the program said.

Cloning is only an ancillary method to train police dogs with outstanding abilities, but it can not replace natural breeding, researchers said.