From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@optusnet.com.au)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 05:07:16 MDT
The Golden Egg: Chicken Genome Due Next Spring.
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/06_03/chicken.shtml
What this article doesn't say, but is possibly another very good
reason for having the "chook" genome is that we may be able
to use GM (genetically modified) chooks to produce human
proteins of therapeutic benefit in their eggs.
PHarming. As in Farming but with PH as in pharmaceutical.
Unlike goats, sheep etc which might be genetically modified
to produce proteins in their milk, chooks grow fast and produce
eggs relatively cheaply.
As many extropes will know we already produce things
like human growth hormone, insulin and growth factor VIII
and IX and erythropoietin (useful in treating blood diseases)
in genetically modified e.coli (bacteria).
Pharming seems to have hit a political wall in the last couple
of years. Originally the Dolly (the sheep) team were all
keen to go with sheep that could produce human proteins
of therapeutic benefit in their milk but I think they have either
abandoned or vastly scaled down their efforts on this front.
Essentially the concern seems to be that viruses may cross
over from non-human species. The actual risk of this may
be miniscule but the political perception of the risk has
been far far greater.
Pharming using chooks could be 1000 times cheaper than
pharming using goats sheep etc. Cheap pharm products
would of course be of interest to the Chinese. So it will
be interesting to see if cultural differences between China
and the west will yet see China adopt a more liberal
approach to pharm animals. Maybe China will fewer
"chicken littles" runinng around saying the sky is falling.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Regards,
Brett Paatsch
(all corrections to the above from better informed
experts gratefully accepted)
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