This week, a lab in Argentina announced that it has successfully created the “world’s first transgenic cow,” capable of producing what the lab describes as an equivalent of human mother’s milk. Color us unnerved.
“The cloned cow, named Rosita ISA, is the first bovine born in the world that incorporates human genes that contain the proteins present in human milk," read an official statement from Argentina's National Institute of Agrobusiness Technology according to an AFP report.
Rosita ISA was born on April 6, and was delivered by Caesarean section due to the fact that the calf weighed almost 100 lbs (45 kilos) at the time of birth. That’s twice the normal birth weight of the average unmodified Jersey cow. (Always a good sign.) As an adult, it’s expected that as an adult she will produce milk enhanced by the addition of two human genes – lactoferrin and lysozyme, two genes with antibacterial and antiviral properties which scientists claim will “raise the nutritional value” of cows’ milk.
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Still, though Argentina is claiming that Rosita ISA is the first transgenic cow in the world, they aren’t the first to make that claim. Boing Boing reports that China made the same claim earlier this year. In March, China Agricultural University published a study on transgenic cows producing milk containing lactoferrin and lysozyme, along with another genetic modifier known as alpha-lactalbumin.
Will these new modifiers truly raise the nutritional value of milk? Will a product so heavily modified be released on the commercial market any time soon? Only time will tell.
