Eat me, I'm not mad

摘要

Would you tuck into a genetically modified steak? No? What if the cow had been engineered to be BSE-resistant, guaranteeing it was free of the prions that cause vCJD? Researchers have been trying to create prion-free cattle for years. Now they may be on the brink of achieving it. Jorge Piedtahita's team at Texas A&M University has managed to remove the prion gene from cow cells and clone the cells to create embryos, although so far there have been no pregnancies. At least two biotech companies are also racing to create such cows. "People are suggesting this could be the way to go to eliminate BSE transmission to humans," says Keith Campbell of Nottingham University. But it's not clear whether affordable prion-free cows could be created in commercially viable numbers even if the demand was there from farmers and consumers. Nor is it clear what effects knocking out the prion protein will have on the health of the animals.