Chinese Firm Can Now Produce 500 Cloned Pigs Per Year

Sockatume writes "According to an article published by the BBC, Chinese firm BGI has refined cloning procedures to the point where they can produce 500 pigs per year, performing two embryo implantations per day with a 70-80% success rate. Much of the operation is concerned with producing genetically-engineered animals for research. The biotech firm's other work includes million-individual-scale animal and plant genetic sequencing."

Comments

Finally!

[almitydave]

Mankind's millennia-long dream for perfect bacon is nearing realization!

Re:Finally!

[Razgorov Prikazka]

and now they are at it... why not implement some chicken DNA as well. Have bacon and egg`s in one go.
Oh, and bread DNA, baked beans DNA, orange juice DNA, coffee DNA, newspaper DNA, naging wife DNA, sunrise DNA and some razorburn DNA and we are all set for the day!
What a glorious future it will be!

Re:Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

Fluorescent pigs are already a thing:
http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/glow-in-the-dark-pigs.jpg

Bacon you can find in the dark!

Re:Finally!

[i kan reed]

Inviting the most downmods in my entire history of posting to slashdot, but bacon isn't that good, in fact being one of the least flavorful cuts of meat, and I wish the internet would come to terms with that fact.

Re:Finally!

[Finallyjoined!!!]

Heh, at least you're prepared for the downvote storm.
A bacon & runny egg roll from a greasy spoon is the absolute best hangover cure. Certainly the tastiest.

If you think bacon tasteless you're buying it from the wrong place, try a local butcher.
Mine can be found here http://www.wards-meats.co.uk/products.htm

Re:Finally!

[ackthpt]

It's the exact same bacon, but does it taste better?

It's probably not the exact same bacon. I expect terroir will come into play - minor differences in diet and season may produce obvious differences in the fat marbling and quality. Also, there's sure to be variance in processing (this batch was smoked with 7 year old hickory twigs, where that batch was smoked with 9 year old hickory sticks - the wood-to-bark ratio changes the flavor in subtle and mysterious ways...)

I can't help but project the cloning of 500 pigs is pointless if you do not raise them on precisely the same diet, same amount, same schedule. Otherwise you could just leave it to nature to create 500 piglets for you.

Re:Finally!

[Antipater]

Breakfast Flu?

In this country we call that a "hangover".

Re:Finally!

[bloodhawk]

Bacon is not like Apples or Oranges or even other cuts of meat. It doesn't just require a good quality source product (i.e. the pig), the quality vastly varies by the processes used for curing. So you are not just affected by the cheap quality meat when purchasing from supermarket, you are doubly impacted by their cheap rapid processing and poor quality curing to allow them to get it in the stores as fast as possible. This creates far greater difference between what you get from a good butcher and a poor butcher/supermarket. If you want to make food comparions you are better of comparing the differences between prepared foods rather than raw products.

Re:Finally!

[geekoid]

You're wrong. In fact bacon can have a lot of flavor.

Sadly, it's hard to find any restaurant that sells a proper bacon cut.. so you get a thin as paper tasteless piece of trash.

Thick cut, cooked in the oven will give you tender and flavorful bacon.

However, the bacon fad has , thankfully, peaked. becasue, you do not need bacon on everything.

Nothing in my post should be taken as trying to get you to like bacon. Simply to point out that there can be very flavorful bacon.

We already have enough police officers

[Russ1642]

We already have enough police officers. We don't need a clone factory.

Re:Can I get a copy of myself.

[Russ1642]

Can I send my salive and get a copy of myself in 9-10 months? How much that will cost?

Might I suggest a half-clone. They're way cheaper and a hell of a lot more fun to make.

One disturbing aspect...

[SuperKendall]

Although it sounds cool, I can't help but being a little weirded out by the thought of the exact same pig being experimented on endlessly throughout time...

A little like the multiple Ripley clone scene from Alien Resurrection.

Can they clone sheep?

[hessian]

I always wanted a harem.

Re:Ok.

[Charliemopps]

Right in the summary is says these are used for research.

Cloning sucks.

[strstr]

In other news, cloning is fun to know how to do, but totally worthless because it has no valid applications.

You have cloning for food, but, why not just.. grow the meat on scaffolds to eat right then and there? Why clone or grow an entire animal, when you can just grow the meat and body parts you want to eat directly. Also, vegetables are better for people anyway, so why not just abandon meat eating entirely?

Then there's cloning for sexual gratification. The idea of cloning a women or man for sex, who has the form of another the person wants to fuck. Well, that's selfish and totally purposeless, because who cares what types of perceived pleasure a person is having in their mind? It has like no benefit to the outside world, and doesn't get anybody shit.

Re:Ok.

[maxwell demon]

Well, one danger in cloning is that it may hamper the diversity, and therefore may make the pigs more vulnerable to illnesses. This is not so much an issue if it's only animals for research, but if a large number of the animals for food are cloned, it's a real danger.

After all, there's a reason why animals evolved to use sexual reproduction almost exclusively, although asexual reproduction is much more efficient. Sexual reproduction guarantees that the offspring has sufficiently diverse genetics that the illnesses can't too easily adapt.

Re:Can I get a copy of myself.

[icebike]

Can I send my salive and get a copy of myself in 9-10 months?

Are you a pig?

Are you saying the same can't be done with humans?
Are you sure its not being done already?
70 to 80 percent success rate is high enough for more than a few women to choose this,
to say nothing about with a gun to their head.

Re:Ok.

[dwywit]

Ah, the ad hominem response. Please, educate me.

Is it impossible or even highly unlikely that cloned animals would be susceptible to a new strain of virus, and die in large numbers?

Is genetic diversity the best or at least one of the better defences against evolving disease strains?

Are monoculture crops susceptible to large-scale die-off when a new or evolved virus appears on the scene? Hint - Irish potato famine.

Is it smart to breed species that need long-term support to remain productive?

Tell me where I'm wrong. I never said cloned pigs (or monoculture crops) are less nutritious or tasty than traditional or conventional supplies, but I have concerns about the long-term viability of clones and monoculture in our food supplies.

BTW, I did say "I wonder" - that means I'm thinking about something. It's not an authoritive statement, my whole post was couched as a question, with some personal opinions thrown in.

Try using your brain to respond to my statements, rather than attempting to insult and threaten me - you'll avoid looking stupid.