Farm animals may soon get new features through gene editing
Posted Nov 15, 2018 02:03:02 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OAKFIELD, N.Y. — Cows that can withstand hotter temperatures. Cows born without pesky horns. Pigs that never reach puberty.
A Minnesota company wants to alter farm animals by adding and subtracting genetic traits in a lab. It sounds like science fiction, but Recombinetics sees opportunity for its technology in the livestock industry.
Recombinetics says gene editing does what traditional breeding has always done, except faster and more precisely. It says milk producers already breed based on a bull’s pedigree, and that gene-edited traits would just cost extra.
To win support for the technology, Recombinetics is introducing gene-edited traits that ease animal suffering.
For instance, it’s gene editing cows to be hornless. That would mean the animals don’t have to go through painful dehorning procedures.
Another project: pigs that never go through puberty, so they don’t need castration.
Candice Choi, The Associated Press
