By Helen Briggs BBC News
1 February 2017
Scientists in China say they have produced cloned cattle with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis.
Twenty calves were born, of which 11 survived for more than three months.
Bovine TB is a risk to cattle in many countries, including parts of the UK, Africa and Asia.
Researchers in China used a genome editing tool to change the genetic code of cattle. They say the technology could have widespread uses in agriculture.
A team from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi, China, altered a gene involved in fighting infection.
"The resulting transgenic cattle exhibited increased resistance to M. bovis (bovine TB) infection," they said.
"Our study provides an avenue to develop the CRISPR/Cas9 system for agricultural applications."
The latest research, published in the journal, Genome Biology, used the new genome editing tool, which is more precise.
Tests on resistance to TB were carried out on blood samples taken from the cloned animals.
It is not clear what would happen if the transgenic cattle were exposed to tuberculosis in normal conditions.
Prof Ian McConnell, emeritus professor of veterinary science at the University of Cambridge, said TB in cattle is a complex disease.
Read on
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!