Tue, 01 Jun 2004

Japanese develop first cow immune to Mad Cow disease

I've mentioned these kinds of efforts before: it never ceases to amaze me when folks automatically look to "advanced technology" for solutions when often the answer is exceedingly simple: in this case: stop feeding ruminants meat products!

Kirin Brewery Company, as part of its joint project with Hematech LLC to develop a cow that can produce human antibodies, has succeeded in producing a cow fetus in which neither bovine antibody gene1 nor the gene for the prions2 that are the cause of BSE are present. The process developed utilizes cells derived from bovine embryos that continuously destroy the bovine genes for antibodies and prions. This is the first successful production of a cell that continuously destroys two differing genes, and the first time that a cow fetus with these characteristics has been created through cell nuclear transfer.

(link) [Science Blog]

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