A fluorescent green pig in northeast China has given birth to
two piglets which share their mother's transgenic characteristic
after she mated with an ordinary pig, Chinese scientists said
Tuesday.
"The mouths, trotters and tongues of the two piglets glow green
under ultraviolet light, which indicates the technology to breed
transgenic pigs via cell nuclear transfer is mature," said Liu
Zhonghua, a professor at Northeast Agricultural University in
Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province.
The mother pig is one of the three fluorescent green pigs
successfully bred by a research team led by Liu in December 2006
after they injected fluorescent green protein into pig embryos.
She produced 11 piglets Monday but so far only two of them have
inherited the fluorescent feature.
Liu said the births meant transgenic pigs were reproductive and
part of their transgenic characteristics were inheritable.
"This technology promises to breed excellent transgenic pigs and
even raise special pigs to provide organs for human transplant
operations in the future," he said.
Chinese scientists bred the pigs successfully using somatic cell
nuclear transfer technology following their counterparts in the
United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)
