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Scientists Clone Sheep With 'Good' Fat

Posted by Soulskill on from the pulling-the-wool-over-your-stomach's-eyes dept.

redletterdave writes "Chinese scientists have cloned a genetically modified sheep containing a 'good' type of fat found naturally in nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens that helps reduce the risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. The gene, which is linked to the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids, was inserted into a donor cell taken from the ear of a Chinese Merino sheep. The cell was then inserted into an unfertilized egg and implanted into the womb of a surrogate sheep. With any luck, this process could be replicated in the future to clone more animals for safe and healthy consumption."

22 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Genetically Modified Hogs next? by tomhath · · Score: 4, Funny

    Healthy bacon. Mmmm.

    1. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by erroneus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I kinda disagree with that. Yes, current meats are kinda... bad in large amounts but that is largely because of the way the body works... if you live on mostly meats without much in the way of carbs, you'll be just fine and your body will consume those "bad fats." Problem is, it is really hard to eat that way... really hard. It's good to mix things up. So if we can have meats without the negative health impact when mixed with other things, we will get the benefits of the protiens and all the good things meat offers and still be able to eat it with things more carby... like spaghetti in meat sauce... :)

    2. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by MyFirstNameIsPaul · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is already a reality with naturally-fed animals. For example, beef can provide us with all the healthy fats and oils we need when the cow is grass-fed and range raised. When chickens are raised on a diet or worms that grow in fresh cow dung, the consistency, flavor, and overall health of their eggs is substantially higher than what is generally available in the supermarket.

      --

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    3. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by Genda · · Score: 5, Funny

      ECOPIG!!! Swine of environmental justice!!!! Wherever evil agro-corps commit atrocities against the natural landscape ECOPIG and his sidekick PIGGY-SUE will snort in the face of danger and send those business hogs back to Wallstreet squealing!!!

    4. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by CAIMLAS · · Score: 4, Interesting

      How is it difficult to eat "that way"?

      IMO it's very easy to have a diet which is primarily meat. You don't have to eat a large pork rind for breakfast or a side of bacon every other week, but if you've got good quality meat available, short of filling up your cart with lots of different meats and a handful of odd veggies at the grocery, it's really not that hard.

      You need less food (in volume) if you're eating meat than if you were eating a 'mixed' carb-heavy diet, too, which certainly helps. Judging from what I've seen vegans or even vegeterians deal with, it's certainly easier (in terms of food prep and quantity) and less costly.

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    5. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by value_added · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Worth pointing out that the same applies to vegetables and fruits. Winter tomatoes grown in the sandy soils of Florida can't really be compared nutritionally to what someone can get out of their own garden.

      Ultimately, it's all about the "ingredients". That's long been considered a truism for chefs in the kitchen as it is for someone involved in raising animals. That this is routinely overlooked, glossed over or otherwise dismissed in the pursuit of economic interests and efficiencies is both funny and tragic. Funny in the sense of "What the hell did you expect?", and tragic in the sense of engaging in (and wasting time and effort with) tortured discussions of good/bad ideas and practices which, ultimately, are workaround to workarounds.

    6. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by RulerOf · · Score: 4, Informative

      Then you die like the doctor who came-up with this "eat lots of fat" diet.

      If you think that his diet was the cause of the fall and resulting head trauma that killed him, I've got some news for you: you're a fucking moron.

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    7. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by Oswald · · Score: 5, Funny

      When chickens are raised on a diet or worms that grow in fresh cow dung, the consistency, flavor, and overall health of their eggs is substantially higher than what is generally available in the supermarket.

      For some reason, the more you talk up animal products, the more I want to become a vegan.

    8. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by sunspot42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      >Then you die like the doctor who came-up with this "eat lots of fat" diet.

      If you're referring to Atkins, he died after slipping on the ice, falling, hitting his head and going into a coma. Diet had nothing to do with that (unless he was drunk at the time!).

      I dropped carbs pretty much completely out of my diet a year ago, and started eating meat with every meal after having been a vegetarian for over 20 years. I've dropped from about 215 to 165lbs, and my cholesterol has dropped from over 250 to 200. My "bad" cholesterol has plummeted, and my "good" cholesterol has skyrocketed. My triglycerides are way down. So's my blood pressure. So all of my markers correlated with heart disease have improved, dramatically. And I sleep better and have more energy.

      Atkins was right. I just gotta be more careful than he was when I step on icy sidewalks!

    9. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

      For some reason, the more you talk up animal products, the more I want to become a vegan.

      I favor meat licenses. You should have to tour a slaughterhouse or kill and cook an animal before you're allowed to eat meat. Let's have a little recognition of where our food comes from and what happens to it on the way. I've killed, skinned, cut up and cooked a deer, I've caught and killed a goose by hand and it went in the stew... I understand I'm eating life, and what that actually means, and I'm cool with it. I know that when you cut them, stuff comes out you don't want on your hands, and yet after you grill them they are goddamned delicious, and good for you. If I eat a typical meal (notably including a little carb bomb) I feel stuffed and weighted down. If I just eat a big fucking steak I feel great, full of energy, have a nice crap the next morning and I'm up and at 'em. Meat, it's what's for dinner.

      BRING ON THE CRAPWORMS

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    10. Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? by ArcherB · · Score: 3, Insightful

      When chickens are raised on a diet or worms that grow in fresh cow dung, the consistency, flavor, and overall health of their eggs is substantially higher than what is generally available in the supermarket.

      For some reason, the more you talk up animal products, the more I want to become a vegan.

      Funny you would say that. Have you seen the crap that vegetables are grown in? As someone who grows his own vegetables, let me tell you how to make the most healthy soil available.

      1) Start with fresh manure from a herbivore. That's crap from a vegetarian to you city folk. Bunny crap works the best when mixed with urine soaked saw dust. Horse manure mixed with urine soaked bedding, cow, goat,llama or other large, herbivore mammal will also work.
      2) Allow it to rot for a few months. (This is a good additive as is, but we can make it better)
      3) Feed the rotted manure it to worms. Red Wigglers are the most common.
      4) Separate the live worms from the worm crap.
      5) The crap that is left is the best soil you will ever run across and it will produce the greatest vegetables on the planet.

      That's right. Crap from crap fed worms is the best soil imaginable. Of course, that re-crapped crap is what is absorbed into the plants, mixed with water, CO2 and sunlight to make the vegetables you eat. And they are delicious!

      Of course, some animal products can be beneficial as well. Bone meal (ground up animal bones), blood meal and fish emulsion are also beneficial, but nothing compares to good old worm shit.

      Don't think that just because you are vegetarian that you are not eating crap. Manure is the most important product in agriculture behind sunlight and water.

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  2. my wife... by crutchy · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...gets a bit of "good fat" occasionally

  3. First clone of first post! by larry+bagina · · Score: 3, Funny

    HeaIthy bacon, Mrnrnrn,

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    1. Re:First clone of first post! by Nursie · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I would dispute 'very good'.

  4. Creepy mental image by Grayhand · · Score: 5, Funny

    The fact they got the fat gene from a round worm gave me this mental image of a 100lb round worm covered in sheep's wool. I doubt counting those wouldn't help me get to sleep and would likely give you nightmares.

  5. Healthy by kamapuaa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Worth mentioning that humans evolved to eat animals with standard fat percentages, not margarine or mealworm-sheep. There is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD, and there are healthy populations that traditionally go 6-9 months with no fats except animals fats.

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    1. Re:Healthy by slew · · Score: 3, Informative

      Worth mentioning that humans evolved to eat animals with standard fat percentages, not margarine or mealworm-sheep. There is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD, and there are healthy populations that traditionally go 6-9 months with no fats except animals fats.

      FWIW, the main advance with this announcement is not the omega-3/FAT-1 transgenic aspect, it is the new cloning technique BGI calls handmade cloning which apparently allows lower-tech facilities and higher transgenic clone yield. BGI has already done this transgenic modification with pigs and now they have done it with sheep. With this new cloning technique, however, it might be possible to do this at an industrial scale.

      However, If you are interested instead about this specific "fat-1" transgenic idea, it was done with mice way back in 2004.

      Although that is possibly true that saturated fats aren't corrolated with increased risk of CHD or CVD, omega-3 fatty acids are required for controlling blood clotting and building cell membranes in the brain and are assumed to be a necessary nutrient. The "healthy populations" you seem to be alluding to likley maintain their consumption of omega-3 fatty acids from seafood and nuts and oils for 6-9 months of the year.

    2. Re:Healthy by CAIMLAS · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Here in America, we also have processed grains in everything.

      We also have a very high percentage of our diets consist of processed GMO grains (corn, wheat). If you're having 2 hamburgers with a handful of corn chips and two white wheat buns, the meat isn't going to be the primary component of the meal.

      It seems that every couple months there's a news article about some old guy or gal who died after a fairly insignificant (not particularly active or sedentary, nothing really marked to note) life who spent their entire life having pork (ham/bacon) and eggs for breakfast every day. It wasn't until the inclusion of excess grains that Americans started to have issues in the late 1800s.

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  6. Re:Ethics of GMO animals? by englishknnigits · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are you saying you would rather eat an animal that doesn't want you to eat it?

  7. Re:Fat? by WarSpiteX · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think you may be wrong. Nuts and avocados are the most common plants to contain fats, but others do as well. Like olives.

    Unless you think you're frying your chicken on olive carbs, rather than olive oil?

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  8. Re:Ethics of GMO animals? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We've been doing GMO for centuries, many of them. The difference is now we're able to make specific, targeted changes much more rapidly, whereas before we had to breed features in and out of our food species over very (very very in some cases) long periods with only a partial ability to control the outcomes well. This whole argument is kinda like hearing someone say "You genetically modified a housecat to not have claws? That's so unnatural!" .. as if housecats are at all natural. We created what they are today over a long period (well, and some more modern breeds/features over a shorter period when we understood breeding properly). If you want a "natural" pet, trying having a cougar sit in your lap and purr every day (insert cougar dating joke here).

    All of the modern major food supply species: Cows, Pigs, Chickens, etc... are all incredibly unnatural species already, even before the advent of proper GMO. They'd go extinct in a heartbeat without us growing/farming/protecting them until we eat them. We engineered them as food sources, they're not natural!

  9. or, just eat "nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens" by dAzED1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    any particular reason one can't do this? A much more direct approach, healthier, more environmentally friendly, and doesn't have that extra-added danger of eating the product of extreme genetic modification...