Cloned Cattle Yield Test-Tube Herds for U.S. Sirloins, Milk

US - Mark Walton, head of the world's largest animal cloning company, sees his biotechnology lab in Austin, Texas, as the next frontier in food production.
calendar icon 27 March 2007
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Nine months ago, scientists at Walton's closely held ViaGen Inc. extracted genetic information from customers' prized cattle and transferred the DNA into bovine eggs to make embryos. Now, 75 miles away at the 300-acre Hillman Ranch in the town of Cameron, surrogate mother cows, carrying the embryos, are giving birth to calves that are clones of the clients' finest cattle.

This generation of test-tube bulls and cows may be the first whose elite genes end up in America's meat and milk. U.S. regulators are set to approve the cloning of animals for the food supply as early as this year. This action will open the way for food producers to use copies of genetically superior animals to make bigger, stronger herds and, perhaps, tastier products.

``ViaGen has this huge potential to be a really significant company in animal agriculture on a global basis,'' Walton says, sitting in an office, decorated with collages of cow photos, down the hall from the lab. He says the market for cloning in the U.S. alone could be at least $500 million a year.

Wary consumers and organic food suppliers have indicated they may spurn products from cloned animals no matter what regulators decide. ViaGen and competitors such as Cyagra Inc. of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, are working to gain public support.

Dean, Kraft Foods

Dean Foods Co. of Dallas, the biggest U.S. dairy distributor, has said the company won't use milk from cloned cows even if the technology is approved because of concerns of consumer backlash. Other major food companies, including Kraft Foods Inc. of Northfield, Illinois, say they will decide after regulators act.

``We'll evaluate the consumer benefits and acceptance in considering whether or not to use ingredients from cloned animals,'' said Claire Regan, a spokeswoman for Kraft, the world's second-largest food company, after Nestle SA.

The public attaches ``horrific connotations'' to cloning even though ``it's just fine-tuning what people have done for thousands of years in breeding livestock,'' said Gregory Pence, a professor who teaches medical ethics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Artificial insemination is already used routinely on ranches, he said.

Source: Bloomberg.com
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