Hi folks here is what the scientists are TRYING? to do in New Zealand un successfully it seems. Trying to modify cows milk for human . Cheers Tony
> ------- Forwarded message follows ------- > Subject: NZ HERALD "Cloned animals dying at > AgResearch" l4 Nov 02 > Date sent: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:10:17 +1300 > > http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsecti > on=&st oryID=3004259&reportID=58049 > > Cloned animals dying at AgResearch > > 14.11.2002 > By SIMON COLLINS > Almost a quarter of the calves and lambs cloned from adult animals by > Government-owned AgResearch have died within about their first three > months of life. > > AgResearch's cloning programme leader, Dr David Wells, said "errors in > the pattern of gene expression" had produced some animals with > deformities that made them "not viable at birth". > > The institute had also aborted some calves before birth, and > slaughtered some cows acting as surrogate mothers when foetuses grew > too big to be born normally. Scientists performed caesareans to > deliver others. > > But he said that in 35 cases so far where cloned calves had lived and > produced their own calves by normal sexual reproduction, there was no > evidence that defects had been passed on to the next generation. > > The Hamilton institute said yesterday that it had begun work on > genetically modifying cows' milk to produce potentially valuable > medical drugs, in line with a controversial permit granted in > September. > > The institute claims to be the most efficient in the world at cloning > animals, achieving a 6 per cent survival rate of cloned embryos > through to weaning at about three months. > > Dr Wells said "the vast majority" of cloned calves were delivered > naturally by surrogate mothers, but "large offspring syndrome", where > cloned foetuses can grow up to a third larger than normal, "can > sometimes happen". > > "We aim to deliver appropriately sized animals. If there are difficult > births, they may need assistance in delivering animals, and in extreme > cases there may be a need for a caesarean section to deliver a calf. > But they would constitute certainly perhaps 5 per cent of > pregnancies." > > When cases were detected in time, they were aborted. > > "We are constantly monitoring pregnancies and detecting any that we > suspect are developing abnormally, and we would either terminate that > pregnancy early in gestation ... or we may sacrifice the cow to > recover the material for further scientific study." > > He said it would not be meaningful to state a maternal death rate > because the decisions to abort the calf or kill the cow were made by > the scientists. > > However, the death rate of cloned calves between birth and weaning was > 24 per cent, compared with about 5 per cent in normal calves. > > Of these, about 2 per cent were put down because of chronic sickness, > and the rest died unaided. > > A further 5 per cent died after weaning, compared with about 3 per > cent among calves born normally. > > > >
