Viagen in the News
Cloning May Remove the Guesswork from Breeding
By Martha Blum, AgriNews Online
April 24th, 2007
CHICAGO — Cloned animals are exact genetic copies of the donor animals — they are not genetically modified.
“Clones are identical twins separated by time,” stated Mark Walton, president of ViaGen, Inc., at last week’s BIO 2006 convention.
BIO 2006 was the 14th annual international convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. With the theme, “Brilliant science, smart business, better living, it’s all here,” the event drew a record attendance of over 19,000 people from 62 countries.
The birth of the sheep, Dolly in 1996 represents the beginning of cloning for many people. “One of the myths that surrounds cloning is that animals die prematurely,” Walton stated. “But here are a group of cloned sheep that were born about the same time as Dolly and they are reaching about nine years old.”
Researchers have actually been working on cloning techniques long before the birth of Dolly. “In fact, 10 years prior to that the first sheep was born from embryonic cell nuclear transfer,” the speaker said. “In 1983, the first mammal was cloned using embryonic cells, 30 years before that, frogs were cloned and in 1928 the first nuclear transfers were done.”
Walton identified several benefits of cloning. “Cloning removes the guesswork from breeding – you can select animals for their performance,” he stated. “It also can accelerate the dissemination of genetics.”
Not only can cloning accelerate the dissemination, it allows the use of the very best genetics. “As a result we can improve the quality and consistency and we have the opportunity to reduce the environmental foot print,” Walton stated.
For example, the speaker said, the average Holstein dairy cow in the U.S. produces 19,600 pounds of milk and there are Holstein cows that are producing 40,000 pounds of milk. “So there is an opportunity to use cloning to reproduce animals capable of producing twice or more milk,” he explained.
In the beef industry, Walton said, it is not uncommon for cattlemen to pay $5,000-$6,000 per commercial bull. “With cloning, they could be looking at copies of the best bulls and instead of having one producer take advantage, those genetics could be disseminated across many herds.
Currently the swine industry produces about 100 million market hogs in the U.S., the speaker reported. “So if we cloned 1.5 percent of those as terminal and/or grand sires a year, by capturing those genetics that would add $3 per market animal value to the industry or a $300 million annual impact.”
Cloning is another assisted reproduction technology that people in the livestock industry may use to continue to improve breeding efficiency.
“A.I. was first done in the 1300s by horse breeders, embryo transfer was developed in 1891, invitro fertilization was done in 1959 and embryo freezing became commonplace in the early 1970s,” Walton reported. “So cloning is the next step in assisted reproduction technology.”
Leah Wilkinson, director of food safety for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said, there are over 800,000 cow-calf producers in the U.S. “Over 48 percent of these producers have less than 100 head,” she added. “So with technology like this, how can it be useful to them to get the best rate of return on investment?”
In addition, the food safety director said, a lot depends on the reaction of consumers. “We have to have demand for our product, so whatever we do, we do not want to hurt the confidence in our product,” she stressed.
Cloning may be used to improve the consistency of beef products. “We continue to strive to provide products that taste the same, have the same tenderness or are the same size,” Wilkinson explained. “Or we could use cloning to produce a higher quality product, last year 2.9 percent of the carcasses graded prime.”
Another goal of cloning could be to produce healthier animals. “We think this has the best potential to provide something to the consumer that’s not just a production benefit,” the speaker said. “Maybe healthier animals that shed less E.coli or salmonella could be produced.”
Cattle producers are constantly faced with additional proposals for more environmental regulations of the industry. “So cloning could lessen that environmental impact from each animal, whether from production benefits like higher rate of gain or if we could find something to lessen the environmental impact,” the food safety director said.
“NCBA does not have a policy on cloning,” Wilkinson reported. “We are looking at the cost of the technology and how that will impact the use.”
As the organization continues to evaluate the technology, Wilkinson said, it will be important to address issues such as if the animals will need to be segregated and if there will be labeling requirements for the beef products.
“We must look at what needs to be done to meet the needs of consumers,” she concluded.
For more information about the Biotechnology Industry Organization, visit the website at: www.bio.org.
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