http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/26/news/pig.php
Healthy bacon, anyone?
By Gina Kolata The New York Times
MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2006
A group of university researchers in the United States announced Sunday
that they had created what sounds like a nutritional holy grail: cloned pigs
that make their own omega-3 fatty acids, potentially leading to bacon and pork
chops that might help your heart.
For now, the benefits of the research are highly theoretical. Omega-3
fatty acids, which have been linked to reduced incidence of heart disease, are
primarily found in fish. No one knows whether the omega-3s would have the same
effect if people ate them in pork, because the saturated fat in pork might
cancel any benefits.
And government approval for such genetically modified foods is certain to
face opposition from consumer groups.
Still, some enthusiastic scientists say the findings, published online by
the journal Nature Biotechnology, are an important indicator of things to come.
"At this point it's a new era," said Alice Lichtenstein, a professor of
nutrition science and policy at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of
Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Alexander Leaf, an emeritus professor of clinical medicine at Harvard,
said he was confident that pork and other foods with omega-3s would eventually
get to consumers and that consumers would be the better for it.
"People can continue to eat their junk food," Leaf said. "You won't have
to change your diet, but you will be getting what you need."
For years, nutritionists have urged people to eat fish rich in omega-3
fatty acids. But fish can be expensive, not everyone likes it and omega-3s are
in greatest abundance in oily fish like tuna, which contains mercury.
That nutritional conundrum led a group of scientists from Harvard Medical
School, the University of Missouri and the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center to think of modifying pigs.
The result was five white piglets with muscle tissue larded with omega-3
fatty acids.
They live at the University of Missouri in individual concrete pens with
fiberglass-railed sides, concrete floors bisected with orange grates for
flushing waste and black foam pads for beds.
The paper describing the generation of the pigs, published online Sunday,
will appear in Nature Biotechnology's April 6 print issue.
Pigs with their own omega-3 fatty acids exist in nature, notably a
Spanish breed called Ibérico. But Jing Kang, an associate professor of medicine
at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the new paper, said pigs were
only the beginning.
He said he was also developing cows that make omega-3 fatty acids in
their milk and chickens that have the fatty acids in their eggs.
"At this point it's a new era," said Lichtenstein of the Friedman School.
It goes without saying that pork from cloned genetically modified pigs or
milk from such cows or eggs from such chickens would raise the ire of many
consumers.
It will be years before such products make their way to the market, if
ever. Michael Herndon, a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration, said
in an e-mail message that research with genetically engineered animals would
probably require approval from the agency.
He said the agency "also expects documentation of plans regarding the
disposition of all investigational animals after their participation in the
study is completed."
Herndon said the agency had not yet approved use of any genetically
modified animals for food.
"If they were ever to come on the market, I am confident that consumers
would not want them," said Joseph Mendelson, the legal director for the Center
for Food Safety, a nonprofit group that opposes the use of genetically
engineered products as currently regulated.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
