China Animal-Cloning ‘Factories’ Produce 500 Cloned Pigs A Year For Food (And Medical Testing)

China Animal-Cloning ‘Factories’ Produce 500 Cloned Pigs A Year For Food
www.opposingviews.com...#

China is now cloning pigs “on an industrial scale,” ... the new techniques being used to 'mass produce' cloned versions of the animal.

The BGI...produces 500 cloned pigs a year for gene sequencing of the species—in other words, to continue to produce animals that have specific characteristics.

The Beijing Institute has a gene-sequencing center with 156 machines, compared to Europe’s largest--the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge, with 30.

Wang Jun, the BGI’s chief executive, said they choose what species to sequence on the basis of whether it “tastes good”, or if it “looks cute” – “anything that looks cute: panda, polar bear, penguin, you should really sequence it - it's like digitalizing all the wonderful species," he told the BBC.

PIGS “MASS PRODUCED” FOR MEDICAL TESTING

Because pigs share a genetic structure similar to humans, the BGI ‘mass produces’ pigs to test out new medicines and techniques to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's, Wang Jun says.

Technicians insert fiber-optic probes into the sow’s uterus before implanting early stage embryos pre-prepared in a laboratory. These implantations are carried out twice daily and have a 70 to 80 per cent success rate.

Many of the animals being held there have been genetically modified in some way, the BBC reports, and some of the pigs are actually clones of clones.

The Institute was founded in 1999 and plans to replace expensive machines with people for quicker and cheaper ‘handmade cloning.

"We can do cloning on a very large scale," lead scientist Dr Yutao Du said, indicating that it only requires thirty to fifty people to create a cloning factory.

BRITAIN PLANS TO EXPORT PIG SEMEN TO CHINA

Despite being home to half the world's pigs – and the largest consumers of pork in the world - authorities in Beijing are concerned about the quality of their stock.

In December, Prime Minister David Cameron struck up a trade deal between Britain and China which will see the UK exporting pig semen to Chinese farmers in a deal worth £45 million (almost $74 million in USD.)

So British boars are under pressure to upgrade their genetic make-up, as at least four artificial insemination centers are scheduled to start exporting sometime this year.

I told myself a long time ago not to eat pork because it is not the cleanest of meat in the market. Now and then I will have a little pork, but this story woke me up a little to how the world is changing and what to look out for when going out to a restaurant or when I shop for food.

Albeit the cloning is made and meant for Chinese consumption as they are voracious swine consumers, somehow I keep asking myself what is the likelihood of something like a cloned animal landing on my dinner plate. So far the farming here in Canada is strong and I have good reason to believe that we are not consuming cloned meats [yet].

That said, if you ever plan on visiting China, be aware that you may be eating a man-made lab product of a pig and become part of the artificial world yourself.

Thoughts ATS?

So why do we need cloned pigs. Don't we have enough pigs? I mean if pigs were incapable of reproducing it would be a reason or if the cloned pigs didn't eat as much as natural pigs it might be a little better. I think cloned pork would cost more, why do we need to pay a scientist to clone a pig?

rickymouse
So why do we need cloned pigs. Don't we have enough pigs? I mean if pigs were incapable of reproducing it would be a reason or if the cloned pigs didn't eat as much as natural pigs it might be a little better. I think cloned pork would cost more, why do we need to pay a scientist to clone a pig?

Right now this is being done in China on an industrialized scale. If you think about it it, the Chinese population is approximately 1.354 billion people . As the population increases they will be demanding more food in a short amount of time. Noting other countries need food for themselves too, there will be limited supply of import into China. It is no wonder China is trying to artificially create food to its ever growing numbers of people in the country.

reply to post by Skywatcher2011


I wouldn't want to eat their fake eggs, even the Chinese don't want to eat the fake eggs.

Pigs are easy to grow and a diverse genetic group insures that the pigs will survive. most genetic lines have a few flaws that causes them to be susceptible to different diseases. If all the pigs were cloned and something happened, they could lose all their food. Diversity is always better.

reply to post by rickymouse

If all the pigs were cloned and something happened, they could lose all their food.

They only care about PROFIT...Future scientists will sort it out...

What I am waiting for is 3d printed or grown meat on industrial scale, proof of concepts have already been made.

China cloning pigs is one step of many to get to the point of "cornucopia" technology and addressing the worlds hunger issues, it may be a long an messy process to get to but it will be worth it.

One day, humanity could abolish starvation by allowing technology to grow along these lines.

Who knows one day you could tell your microwave you want a steak, and it will make it from blank stem cells and cook it, all on your counter top.

And the chinese now own Smithfield ? Sounds like time to add pork to the fish group for me...

Considering they have got the process down to almost a standardized pattern of execution....

I wonder what else they have cloned and not told us about?

reply to post by rickymouse


We are running low on pigs simply because of the feed..the weather has made some impact on grains so I'm not quite sure why they are cloning them...bottom line is if they want to they can have at it...I'm not opposed to cloning but I would not want to dine on a cloned animal...not yet

chrismarco
reply to post by rickymouse

 

We are running low on pigs simply because of the feed..the weather has made some impact on grains so I'm not quite sure why they are cloning them...bottom line is if they want to they can have at it...I'm not opposed to cloning but I would not want to dine on a cloned animal...not yet

The cost of feeding a regular pig and feeding a cloned pig would be the same. The initial cost of the cloned pig would be much higher than a pig born naturally. I see no real benefit to this at all. Seems like some people are trying to make guaranteed income for themselves. It doesn't even seem sensible to be doing this.

reply to post by rickymouse


I don't want to eat cloned or lab grown meat. Unfortunately, as the world population increases, there will be more instances of cloned or lab grown meat. The fact that scientists have to do this in order to have enough meat should tell us that the world population is probably already more than it should be.