Cloned Dairy and Beef Cattle could be Available Within Five Years
Speaking at the National Forum for Agriculture in Des Moines this week, Marc van't Noordende, CEO of ABS Global, Inc., said that cloned dairy and beef cattle could be on the market in the United States early in the next decade.
According to van't Noordende, these advancements would be possible because the dairy and beef industries will have available ABS' nuclear transfer technology in combination with technologies ranging from genomics to in vitro fertilization.
"The use of all these technologies together hold tremendous promise for enhancing the quality of products in several industries," said van't Noordende. "We will not only see substantial improvements in cattle performance within the next five years, but for the first time ever, these technologies are making it possible to use cattle breeding in some exciting new applications outside the traditional dairy and beef industries."
Included in these new applications are transgenic production of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and xenotransplantation products for human healthcare. Researchers are exploring producing human pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals from milk of transgenic cattle. Nuclear transfer technology can also be used in the xenotransplantation industry for the production of animal organs for human transplantation.
ABS' sister company, Infigen, Inc., looking to commercialize applications of ABS' cloning and related technologies, has formed a strategic partnership with Netherlands-based Pharming Holding N.V. to develop technologies in the biopharmaceutical and cattle breeding fields. Infigen is also exploring the possibility of modifying its nuclear transfer technology to make it applicable to swine
Marketing in more than 70 countries around the globe, ABS Global has been involved in animal genetics and technology since its founding in 1941.
For more information contact: Infigen, Inc., 6908 River Rd., P.O. Box 459, DeForest, WI 53532. Tel: 608-846-6225; Fax: 608-846-6271.
Edited by Pam Ahlberg