China is cloning pigs "on an industrial scale" for medical research

Alessandra Kelley · Jan 14, 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25576718

The Chinese company BGI is cloning pigs by the hundreds for medical research.

The BBC was permitted to bring a camera crew to the former shoe factory in Shenzhen where the pigs are cloned and raised.

It's an interesting story, and a slightly weird one. The technicians in China were very matter-of-fact about the process and uses of cloning, and that seemed to surprise the BBC journalists.

veinglory · Jan 14, 2014

Which is a tad odd as these simplified cloning techniques for swine were largely developed in Scotland and fairly well publicized.

mirandashell · Jan 14, 2014

Were the journos surprised this had happened? (I can't open the link as I'm at work)

I thought it wouldn't take long for this to happen somewhere on the planet once the technology was proven to work.

veinglory · Jan 14, 2014

Cloned lab pigs are in production in the US and Japan and have been for some time.

Plot Device · Jan 14, 2014

Is it a good thing or a bad thing --as far as medical research goes-- that the pigs will all be virtually identical?

veinglory · Jan 14, 2014

Generally they insert a gene into the pig (like one that models a disease). They way they do it is not (reliably/rapidly/uniformly) inheritable. So to make multiple pigs with that gene they need to clone it.

China is cloning pigs "on an industrial scale" for medical research

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

veinglory

volitare nequeo

mirandashell

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.

veinglory

volitare nequeo