----- forwarded message -----
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 07:43:33 -0700
From: Teresa Binstock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Cloned Cows Are Engineered for Faster Cheese Production, increased casein
Cloned Cows Are Engineered for Faster Cheese Production
By ANDREW POLLACK
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/27/national/27MILK.html
Will great cheese come from genetically engineered cloned cows?
Scientists in New Zealand are reporting that they have created such cows,
animals that produce milk with higher than normal levels of protein, which would
speed the process of making cheese.
Cows have previously been genetically engineered to produce proteins for use as
pharmaceuticals in their milk. But this is the first time the food properties of
the milk have been genetically engineered, according to the journal Nature
Biotechnology, which will publish a paper on the work in its February issue.
The researchers, led by Götz Laible at AgResearch, a government-owned research
company, put extra copies of the genes for two milk proteins — beta-casein and
kappa-casein — into cow cells in the laboratory. They then created cow embryos
from those cells using cloning. Eleven cows were born, and nine produced milk
with 8 percent to 20 percent more beta-casein and twice as much kappa-casein as
controls.
"It could be a very cool thing, especially if you like pizza," said Robert J.
Wall, an expert on genetically engineered cattle at the Department of
Agriculture in Beltsville, Md. But Dr. Wall, who was not involved in the work,
said the Agriculture department's own surveys had detected mixed reactions on
such cows from the dairy industry.
"One year they will say, `Please increase the protein content in the milk so I
can make cheese more efficiently,' " he said. "The next year they'll say, `We
have a sort of deficit in butter, so make fat at a high concentration.' "
Cheese made from genetically engineered cows is not expected in groceries any
time soon. The Food and Drug Administration has asked that milk or meat from
cloned animals not be sold while it develops a policy on such products.
But even if products from cloned animals are allowed, a separate review of food
from genetically engineered animals would be required. Testing would have to be
done to make sure the genetic engineering had not produced any unexpected
changes in the
milk.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
