Associated Press | January 10, 2000
ALBANY, Ga. - Researchers working on cattle cloning aren't just trying to produce a better steak. Eventually, they hope animal cloning will provide new sources of medicines and organs, reduce birth defects and help feed people in poor countries.
The University of Georgia and the Georgia Research Alliance, which is responsible for attracting world-class scientists to the state, have persuaded a leading expert to conduct cloning research in Athens.
Steve Stice and his staff will focus initially on cloning genetically superior cattle. More consistent cattle would provide higher-quality beef for consumers. Later, the team wants to become the first to successfully clone a pig.
"Cloning of animals obviously gets some people concerned," said Stice, formerly the chief scientist at Advanced Cell Technology Inc. in Worcester, Mass. "There are good reasons to do it in animal agriculture to improve efficiency and use fewer resources.
"People talk about playing God," he said. "I try to explain that we're really just trying to do what Mother Nature is allowing us to do."
Stice's earlier research contributed to the world's first calf cloning. Later, he was the first to clone transgenic cattle. Such genetically modified animals could someday produce human medicines or better meat and milk, he says.
"Cloning is a technology that will allow a lot of development to happen," Stice said.
The researchers are collecting cells from the skin and ovaries of genetically superior beef cattle. To create a clone, they insert the donor's cells into a cow's egg that has had the nucleus removed. By fusing them together, they create an embryo.
The embryo is placed in the womb of a surrogate cow that eventually gives birth to a duplicate of the donor animal.
Because of the complexities of the technology, it could be five to 10 years before cloned cattle are available for commercial breeding.
Stice said his team hopes to begin work this spring on the world's first cloned pig. A scientist in Scotland made headlines in 1996 when he cloned a sheep. Since then, other scientists have cloned about 100 cattle, but no one has been able to clone a pig. Their embryos, sperm cells and eggs are sensitive.
"We do a lot of things in the cloning process," Stice said. "Each time we do something with that embryo or egg, it decreases the viability. It's hard to get the pig embryo to live longer than seven days."
Since pigs and humans are biologically similar, scientists may someday be able to clone pigs with organs that could be transplanted into humans, Stice said. "There are 200,000 people in the United States waiting for a kidney transplant," he noted.
Stice's staff has collected cells from a half-dozen genetically superior cattle for cloning. Some are females too old to produce offspring normally.
With outstanding bulls costing $50,000 or more, it can be costly and time-consuming to improve herd genetics using conventional methods such as artificial insemination.
Georgia Research Alliance Director Bill Todd said each of the organization's 32 eminent scholars, including Stice, receives a $1.5 million endowment for research and salary enhancement.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
