Quoted message said:From the San Jose [California] Mercury News of Monday March 27, 2006:
Modified pigs could lead to bacon that benefits heart (byline: Gina
Kolata of the New York Times)
Selected excerpts:
A group of university researchers said Sunday that they had created
what sounds like a nutritional holy grail: cloned pigs that make their
own omega-3 fatty acids [yes, I remember the discussion from a few days
ago about whether omega-3 fatty acids are all they're cracked up to
be], potentially leading to bacon and pork chops that might help your
heart...
Government approval for such genetically modified foods is certain to
face opposition from some consumer groups...
Still, some scientists say the findings published online by the journal
Nature Biotechnology, are an important forerunner of things to come...
"At this point it's a new era," said Alice Lichtenstein, a professor of
nutrition science and policy at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman
School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University School of
Medicine.
Alexander Leaf, an emeritus professor of clinical medicine at Harvard,
said he was confident that pork and other foods with Omega-3s would
eventually get to U.S. consumers and that they would be better for
it...
For years, people have been urged to eat fish rich in omega-3 fatty
acids. But fish can be expensive, not everyone likes it, and omega-3s
are in greatest abundance in oily fish like tuna, which contains
mercury...
Pigs with their own omega-3 fatty acids exist in nature, notably a
Spanish breed called Iberico. But Dr. Jung Kang, an associate professor
of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the new
paper, said pigs were only the beginning, adding that he was also
developing cows that made omega-3s in their milk and chickens that had
the fatty acids in their eggs...