Argentine Cow Clones To Produce Insulin In Milk

The newborn Jersey heifers - who the scientists have named Patagonia 1, 2, 3 and 4 - will start producing the human hormone when they reach adulthood, said the biotechnology company behind the project, Bio Sidus.

"This model of a genetically modified cow is a model that allows us to produce large quantities of products at very low cost," said managing director Marcelo Criscuolo, adding that insulin produced by cows would be at least 30 percent cheaper.

"The cattle-ranching know-how we have in Argentina has really given us a startling advantage in generating the technology," he said at a news conference.

To produce pharmaceutical products from cow`s milk, scientists insert the human gene of interest into an embryo before implanting it into a surrogate mother cow. In this case they used a gene for insulin.

Once milk is obtained from the genetically modified cow, it will be purified and refined to extract the insulin. Similar techniques have already been used to produce human proteins in goats and cows.

Argentina, the world`s third-biggest beef exporter, is famous for its sweeping Pampas grazing lands and it is one of a handful of countries to have cloned livestock.

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