Fighting mad cow disease with genes

On the heels of last week’s story about cloning beef. Here’s one about genetically altered beef that will probably be more accepted …

Researchers in the U.S. and Japan say they’ve been able to genetically engineer cattle that resist mad cow disease. The hope is that these altered bovines can spawn herds that are free of the potentially fatal condition. Read the Reuters story here, http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2007-01-01T091910Z_01_N31264936_RTRUKOC_0_US-MADCOW-BREED.xml&WTmodLoc=HealthNewsHome_C2_healthNews-3, or here from USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-01-01-genetic-cattle_x.htm?POE=TECISVA.

The study is in this week’s issue of Nature Biotechnology, which is located on the Web here, http://www.nature.com/nbt/index.html.

Key quote from USA Today story: “At least for now the cattle are not meant for human consumption, says James Robl, president of Hematech Inc. in Sioux Falls, S.D., a biotech firm owned by the pharmaceutical division of Japanese brewing giant Kirin. Instead, if they prove incapable of getting mad cow disease, they could be used to produce products important to industry, such as blood serum used in making pharmaceuticals and collagen for cosmetics. Because of concerns about mad cow disease, many companies have been scrambling to find cost-effective replacements for these, often with little success.”