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This study was designed to explore the effects of histone deacetylase inhibitor romidepsin (FK228) treatment on the morphology, proliferation and karyotype of porcine foetal fibroblast cells and early developmental competence of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos. We found that the treatment of foetal fibroblast cells with 0.1μM FK228 for 24 h did not alter normal morphology, proliferation rate and chromosome number of donor cells, while other treatments with different does and durations altered the above characteristics of donor cells seriously. Simultaneously, fusion rate, blastocyst rate and total cell number per SCNT blastocysts from different donor cell treatment groups were similar to the control group. We further found that the treatment of SCNT embryos with low-dose FK228 did not affect their developmental efficiency, but treatment with high dose dramatically caused blastocyst formation failure. In addition, 0.1μM FK228 treatment for 36 h significantly elevated total cell number per SCNT blastocysts. Finally, combined treatments of both donor cells and embryos significantly improved the cleavage rate of cloned embryos, but did not affect the blastocyst rate and total cell number. Taken together, histone deacetylase inhibitor FK228 with optimal dose and exposure duration can enhance early developmental efficiency of porcine SCNT embryos and blastocyst quality.