Posted on 11/15/2018 2:18:23 PM PST by ETL
OAKFIELD, N.Y. (AP) — Cows that can withstand hotter temperatures. Cows born without pesky horns. Pigs that never reach puberty.
A company wants to alter farm animals by adding and subtracting genetic traits in a lab. It sounds like science fiction, but Recombinetics sees opportunity for its technology in the livestock industry.
But first, it needs to convince regulators that gene-edited animals are no different than conventionally bred ones. To make the technology appealing and to ease any fears that it may be creating Franken-animals, Recombinetics isn't starting with productivity. Instead, it's introducing gene-edited traits as a way to ease animal suffering.
"It's a better story to tell," said Tammy Lee, CEO of the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company.
For instance, animal welfare advocates have long criticized the way farmers use caustic paste or hot irons to dehorn dairy cows so the animals don't harm each other. Recombinetics snips out the gene for growing horns so the procedure is unnecessary.
Last year, a bull gene-edited by Recombinetics to have the dominant hornless trait sired several offspring. All were born hornless as expected, and are being raised at the University of California, Davis. Once the female offspring starts lactating, its milk will be tested for any abnormalities.
Another Recombinetics project: castration-free pigs.
When male piglets go through puberty, their meat can take on an unpleasant odor, something known as "boar taint." To combat it, farmers castrate pigs, a procedure animal welfare advocates say is commonly performed without painkillers. Editing genes so that pigs never go through puberty would make castration unnecessary.
Also in development are dairy cows that could withstand higher temperatures, so the animals don't suffer in hotter climates.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Wow they could make a pig with more bacon and maybe a dozen drumsticks and a couple hundred hot wings.
I think cold likely kills more cows than heat does.
Yo, Daf... post 16 is calling you.
Dairy cows give less or no milk at all in hotter climates, this is a bigger problem for 3rd world countries since developed countries tend to be in the temperate zone and can afford AC.
Cold only requires a barn, which stays warm simply from the body heat/respiration of the cows.
Didn’t know that about milk. Thanks.
The bright side of people turning themselves into animals is that all the liberal retards will turn themselves into cows and sheep and as such we can just let real actual predators hunt them to extinction.
Meh, all this is okay, but the REAL brass ring are pigs whose cells all express human epitopes:
Cells have grabber doo-dads on the outside —epitopes— that tell the fighter cells of your immune system, “Yey, I’m you, we’re on the same team, so don’t attack me, go attack some NON-me stuff...”
Thusly humanized pigs would make it so that if you get a donor heart from a Pig? Your body doesn’t realize that heart is/was not yours. Therefore your body doesn’t reject it and you don’t need immune-system suppression drugs.
They have humanized mouse and pig cells (both animals appear totally unaltered), but getting it just right for donation of entire organs to human patients is still sorta iffy:
I think in 10 years or so they’ll have it down cold.
Now THAT is a cock and bull story!
No. There’s no need for that, but there are big risks.
I ain’t gonna scrape those hogs!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
