Brazil creating transgenic cow with blood thickener in milk

AFP 30 June 2004

RIO DE JANEIRO : Brazilian researchers are developing embryos to create a transgenic cow whose milk could be used to produce drugs to treat blood disorders, scientists said Tuesday.

Research began eight months ago and is currently in its embryo production phase, said Jose Manuel Cabras Dias, biotechnology and genetic resources chief at Embrapa, the Agriculture Ministry's research arm.

The cow's milk would contain a blood thickener that can be extracted to create the drugs, Cabras Dias said.

"It's much easier to extract this type of material from milk," he said.

The transgenic cow should be born in three years, he said, and it would take the pharmaceutical industry five years to develop the drugs.

The announcement came one day after Embrapa said one of Brazil's three cloned cows had died.

Vitoriosa, born on February 5, was a clone of Latin America's first cloned cow, Vitoria. Scientists want to determine whether Vitoriosa's death is related to being the clone of a clone.

The cloned cows Vitoria and Lenda, developed from the ovaries of a dead cow, are doing well.