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China's western Shaanxi Province is known for rugged windswept terrain and its coal and wool, but not necessarily its science. Yet at the Shaanxi Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Shaanbei Cashmere Goats, scientists have just created a new kind of goat, with bigger muscles and longer hair than normal. The goats were made not by breeding but by directly manipulating animal DNA—a sign of how rapidly China has embraced a global gene-changing revolution.
Geneticist Lei Qu wants to increase goatherd incomes by boosting how much meat and wool each animal produces. For years research projects at his lab in Yulin, a former garrison town along the Great Wall, stumbled along, Qu's colleagues say. "The results were not so obvious, although we had worked so many years," his research assistant, Haijing Zhu, wrote in an e-mail.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @10:09PM
We are already doing this in the U.S. extensively with crops. Why not livestock as well? I think as global human population continue to rise, genetically modified animals will essentially be necessary to continue feeding everyone. The U.S. needs get over their hang ups pretty quickly or else we risk falling behind the rest of the world in this genetic revolution.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday November 26 2015, @01:09AM
The US has far less hangups than does China in this regard.
http://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/developmentapprovalprocess/geneticengineering/geneticallyengineeredanimals/ [fda.gov]
Why do I get the feeling that both you and the Chinese come down on the other side of this issue when the conversation turns to GMO Corn?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @02:21AM
We should skip the "genetic revolution" all together and be decades ahead in growing tissue from scratch. We already do so for medical purposes. Imagine warehouses where delicious filet mignon is grown like sod. Acre sized slabs a foot thick fed from the top via nutrient spray and a waste water deposition system at the bottom.
Huge fields of cultured bacon! What kind of patriot would deny that American Manifest Destiny! That is clearly far superior to the communist solution of hairy, muscly goats.