World meat industry news

Researchers in Russia announced they have produced the country's first viable cloned cow - and are now editing her genes in the hope of producing hypoallergenic milk. The unnamed calf weighed about 140 pounds when she was born in April 2020. 

For her first year, she was kept in a separate enclosure with her mother. Now, 14 months, she's up to nearly a half-ton and appears healthy with a normal reproductive cycle.

'Since May, she has been on daily pasture with the other cows of the Institute,' said  Galina Singina, a researcher at the Ernst Federal Science Center for Animal Husbandry and lead author of a new study published in the journal Doklady Biochemistry and Biophysics. 

'It required some adaptation, but that happened quickly,' she said.

The experiment was a double win, according to the report from Moscow's Skoltech Institute of Science and Technology, because the researchers also successfully altered her genes to not produce the protein that causes lactose intolerance in humans.   

Singina worked with colleagues at Skoltech Institute and Moscow State University to 'knock out' the genes responsible for beta-lactoglobulin,  the protein that causes 'lactose malabsorption,' often called lactose intolerance, in humans.   

The researchers used CRISPR/Cas9 technology to remove PAEP and LOC100848610, two genes representing beta-lactoglobulin in the bovine genome. 

They managed to clone the calf using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), with the nucleus from a regular cell of a donor transferred into an egg with its nucleus removed.

The resulting embryo was then implanted into the uterus of a cow and carried to term.  

The cloned calf was born in April 2020 and appears healthy. The first cloned cow in Russia, the unnamed bovine has had her genes altered to not produce the protein that causes lactose malabsorption or intolerance  

While genetically modified mice are a fairly common phenomenon, modifying other species is exponentially harder, due to higher costs and difficulties in breeding and husbandry, said co-author Petr Sergiev, a professor at Skoltech Institute.

'Thus, a methodology leading to cattle with hypoallergenic milk is not only a necessity for agriculture of the future, but also a cool project,' Sergiev added.

Nearly 70 percent of the world's population has some form of lactose malabsorption, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, making it difficult for them to digest milk and other dairy products derived from cattle.

While genetically modified mice are a fairly common phenomenon, modifying other species is exponentially harder, due to higher costs and difficulties in breeding and husbandry, said co-author Petr Sergiev, a professor at Skoltech Institute.

'Thus, a methodology leading to cattle with hypoallergenic milk is not only a necessity for agriculture of the future, but also a cool project,' Sergiev added.

Cloning a single cow is really just a test run, Sergiev explained. The next is impregnating a herd of several dozen cows with embryos with the edited genes.   

Elsewhere, researchers are cloning cows for their own health rather than human's: a team in New Zealand used CRISPR genome editing to create cows with gray patches instead of the traditional black, to decrease the amount of heat the animal absorbs while in pasture.   

Researchers in New Zealand revealed last year they managed to clone Holstein calves (pictured) with silvery gray markings instead of black, to better cope with the heat

'Compared to a light coat color, black absorbs more solar radiation translating into radiative heat gain which is a contributing factor to heat stress in cattle, negatively impacting on their production levels, fertility and welfare,' according to their study, published on the preprint site biorxiv.

The researchers see the effort as helping cattle to adapt to climate change, 'with predictions for more frequent and prolonged hot temperature patterns, we aimed to lighten their coat color by genome editing.'

Heat stress among dairy cows is one of the leading causes of decreased fertility and milk production in the summer months.

The bovines thrive between 25 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit, but anything above 80 degrees and they start reducing their food intake— resulting in less milk.