Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Death knell for ‘Enviropig’
Death knell may sound for ‘Enviropigs’
Rod Nickel
Reuters
April 03, 2012
Group pulls funding, genetically modified animals may be euthanized
Pigs that might have become the world’s first genetically modified animals approved for human consumption may instead face an untimely end, as key backers of Canada’s “Enviropig” project withdrew their support for the controversial engineered animal.
Scientists at the University of Guelph, 90 km west of Toronto, bred the first GMO pig that was developed to address an environmental problem in 1999. The animal - known as Enviropig - digests its feed more efficiently than naturally bred pigs, resulting in waste that may cause less environmental damage to lakes and rivers.
The project has produced eight generations of Enviropigs, including the current herd of 16 animals. But they may be the last of their kind, after Ontario Pork - an association of hog farmers in the eastern Canadian province - yanked their funding last month.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Chimera monkeys
Chimera monkeys born in US
The Telegraph
January 05, 2012
The world’s first chimeric monkeys have been created in the US, with researchers fusing cells from up to six different embryos
Until now, rodents have been the primary creatures used to make chimeras, a lab animal produced by combining two or more fertilised eggs or early embryos together.
Scientists have long been able to create “knockout” mice with certain genes deleted in order to study a host of ailments and remedies, including obesity, heart disease, anxiety, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
Attempts to do the same with more complicated primates have failed in the past, but scientists in the western US state of Oregon succeeded by altering the method used to make mice.