Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Cow Engineering

Scientific American:
 
People allergic to whey may be able to drink newly engineered milk without the unpleasant digestive consequences, according to research released October 1.
A team of New Zealand researchers genetically engineered a cow named Daisy to produce milk free of β-lactoglobulin protein that can cause allergic skin, digestive and respiratory reactions predominantly in infants.
"Since the protein is not produced in human milk, it's not surprising that this protein may be recognized as a foreign protein in infants and cause allergies," study author and scientist at AgResearch in New Zealand Stefan Wagner told LiveScience.
Studies show that about 1 in 12 infants develops an allergic response to whey, but most infants are able to outgrow their allergy.
Strange.  I didn't know about the whey allergy.  So would people who are allergenic buy milk from a genetically engineered cow?

No comments:

Post a Comment