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Subscribe to RSSResearchers in New Zealand say a genetically engineered cow is creating milk free of the protein that causes allergies in children. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.
By Trevor Stokes, LiveScience contributor
People allergic to whey may be able to drink newly engineered milk without the unpleasant digestive consequences, according to research released Monday.
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.
For decades, food manufacturers have broken up whey protein, a mix of about 10 proteins including β-lactoglobulin, in milk products through a process called hydrolysis in an effort to decrease its allergenicity. [9 Weirdest Allergies]
"Infant formula uses hydrolyzed milk, which is supposed to be much less allergenic, but there is still residual risk to exposure of allergies," Wagner said.
Some outside researchers expressed concern because while the milk produced by Daisy does show much less β-lactoglobulin, it held more of a non-whey protein called casein, which is also responsible for allergies. "We wouldn't think that this has any relevance to milk allergy; whey protein is one of many, many proteins that people can be allergic to," said Robert Wood, allergy and immunology chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, who was not involved in the new research.
Making Daisy
So instead of relying on manufacturing methods, the researchers focused on getting the source material free of whey.
To decrease whey in milk directly, the New Zealand group created a cow free of β-lactoglobulin. To do so, they combined two tools: Nuclear transfer, a technique established during the days of cloning the famous Dolly sheep; and RNA interference, a technique relatively new for livestock used to shut down genes.
The researchers inserted a DNA fragment into cow somatic cell lines, or those not inherited, for cow-lactating tissues; this DNA element shuts down production of β-lactoglobulin in lactating tissues. Researchers then transferred the transgenic nuclei into unfertilized egg cells that, when stimulated, became embryos that were implanted into cows — a total of 57 cloned cow embryos. [Genetics by the Numbers: 10 Tantalizing Tales]
The process resulted in five pregnancies — one of which was terminated to collect cells. Of the four remaining pregnancies, one resulted in offspring.
The whey-reduced milk is years away from market, if it ever makes it to grocery shelves.
"We are nowhere near any clinical tests — what we are currently doing is to show that milk from our transgenic cow is indeed less allergenic," Wagner said.
A ways to go
But why go to all the bother of producing a transgenic cow when manufacturers can reduce whey in postproduction?
"When we process milk with heat or enzymes, we lose some of the nutrients that are essential to our body," Anower Jabed, who completed his doctoral work on the transgenic cow and is currently at the University of Aukland, told LiveScience. "It is a way to solve the problem where we don't have to process every time."
Daisy was born unable to produce the major allergen in whey, but also born four weeks prematurely, and, to the surprise of researchers, without a tail.
"We do have evidence that suggests that the lacking tail is due to an epigenetic defect (that affects gene expression rather than the genes themselves), and we believe it is not related to the genetic modification of the calf, but this must be backed up by more results," Wagner said.
The whey-reduced milk still contained other allergenic proteins and even increased casein, the main protein that coagulates to form cheese.
However, getting cows to produce hypoallergenic milk may be far-fetched, according to some researchers.
"While it's an interesting idea, that's not going to eliminate the allergies," said Hugh Sampson, an immunologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who was not involved in the current study.
Because federal law says transgenic milk can't be consumed, the researchers aren't sure what it tastes like yet.
Jabed hopes that isn't the case in the future.
"When I started this project in 2007, it was my dream to see a hypoallergenic cow, I wish in the future we can produce (hypoallergenic) milk and market it and see it in store shelves," he said.
The journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published the research today.
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Cool! Franken-milk!
No whey!
just MILK the BULL for some "non dairy creamer" !!!
mmmm franken milk for my franken berry cereal !!
When you see the word "engineered" before a natural food source, beware.
Monsanto has been infusing agent orange into its corns DNA, as well as other plants, animals and sea creatures. Agent Orange causes cancer. It also contaminates other crops with it's pollon so all corn becomes toxic.
Why is this bad ?
They feed corn to chickens, lamb, cows, and pigs as it is cheaper. Now all dairy products have these cancer causing agents as well.
FYI: Bill Gates has controlling interest in Monsanto, and MSNBC. Obama has been appointing Bills lobbyists to positions in our government.
Next post shows who.
Monsanto's number one lobbyist is Barack Obama.
During Obama's term as president, people who had been working to label GMO (genetically modified =organism, GMF = genetically modified food) food and warn the public of its huge dangers were shocked to the core. They saw Obama had been pulling a bait and switch.
Obama filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA.
At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center.
As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.
As commissioner of the USDA, Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack. Vilsack had set up a national group, the Governors' Biotechnology Partnership, and had been given a Governor of the Year Award by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, whose members include Monsanto.
As the new Agriculture Trade Representative, who would push GMOs for export, Islam Siddiqui, a former Monsanto lobbyist.
As the new counsel for the USDA, Ramona Romero, who had been corporate counsel for another biotech giant, DuPont.
As the new head of the USAID, Rajiv Shah, who had preciously worked in key positions for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major funder of GMO agriculture research.
We should also remember that Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, once worked for the Rose law firm. That firm was counsel to Monsanto.
Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court. Kagan, as federal solicitor general, had previously argued for Monsanto in the Monsanto v. Geertson seed case before the Supreme Court.
Obama hadn't simply made honest mistakes. Obama hadn't just failed to exercise proper oversight in selecting appointees. He wasn't just experiencing a failure of short-term memory. He was staking out territory on behalf of Monsanto and other GMO corporate giants.
France has outlawed them alltogether. We should too.
Their lobbyists say they are drought resistant, insect resistant, and weed killer resistant.
They are toxic, and in damn near everything we eat. Our pets too.
They feed these GMO's to the food animals, and even to the farm raised fish.
They spread sterility to neighboring crops rendering their seed infertile. How will this help world hunger when the only viable seed is distributed and under the control of a few individuals. What happens when a hostile nation has control over who eats, and who doesn't.
I'm crazy. I think all biological engineering should be outlawed. Viable fertile seeds are a natural, or god given right if you will, and they SHOULD belong to the world.
"Creativity" that gets misdirected becomes the opposite == destructive .. uh-oh . . . . .
kids are not outgrowing the allergies, they're outgrowing the outward symptoms of allergies, and manifesting deeper dis-ease
"Studies show that about 1 in 12 infants develops an allergic responseto whey, but most infants are able to outgrow their allergy." More studies prove that they outgrow that allergy only to develop many more serious allergies.
out of the woods Post 1.5 and 1.6 Thank you for your comments. I do not feel so all alone.
This is really sad, not only are the animals abused but now they are made into science projects to remove traits of who they are - it's funny that they now mention that we are allergic to the whey in milk but never stated that before????? But it's OK now that they have GM a cow to not produce what we are allergic to.....
So, the milk now produced through genetic modification is less allergenic. But oops, the GM cow was born without a tail! Hmmmmmmmmmmm. If the genetic modification process caused the cow without a tail, what about the people and their offspring who drink the franken-milk? What appendage will they lose or what will their offspring be born without????????????????????????????????????????
Ah yes, we just don't know - yet. Sign my kids and grand-kids up for this experiment? I don't think so.
It is well past time to make consumers aware of any and all genetic modification processes involved in the production and manufacture of the foods we eat and drink!
More Frankenfood.
No thank you. The recombinant bovine growth hormone (rGBH) and anti-biotics in milk are quite enough already. Scientists and profiteering chemical companies like Monsanto just don't know enough when to leave well enough (i.e. nature) alone.
Why not engineer the woman, so that she keeps giving milk free of any allergies. And a fun way to have morning tea too. Strictly for adults!
Sad!! If you are allergic to whey you should probably just not consume it. Not genetically alter an animal to produce something you are no longer reacting to. Breastfeeding infants instead of giving them milk replacement that has to be based on cow or soy milk would eliminate the problem all together. But wait there is not profit to be made from using breast milk is there?
It is simply disturbing!
Yes Carlos.
If someone is allergic to whey, the whey can be removed instead of permanently altering our food sources.
people, people, people. do you really think milk bovines have not been 'engineered' already? do you really think it's 'natural for a cow to produce 25+ gallons of milk twice a day. like, it's natural to grow wheat in siberia. how about the magic of green beans always fitting inside that can. you haven't been able to sow the seeds from ornamental flowers for decades.
Then you wonder why children are so fat and tall for their age. Perhaps the scientists cannot ingest that milk in NZ but they will no doubt send their research results to the USA where scientists in the USA will duplicate the study and before long it will become a part of the rest of the genetically engineered foods in the food source here like corn, soy, chicken etc.
How is that big obesity problem in the USA that occurred over a generation working for folks these days? Look how many kids we have these days that are also waaaaay taller than their parents.... at 12 years old some kids are 6 feet tall already. Why?
Wonder if they are genetically engineering goats yet? Wonder what the taste of goats' milk is like? hmmm
Oh well ..... whatever....
Peace.......
My point exactly. Why would we do this to our entire food supply ?
That is when the few truly control the many.
What if they do this to cattle, chickens, and eventually humans.
What if they do this to our food supply, then they all die from some war, or phenomenon ?
Then we all die.
Instead of playing God, why not try getting on your knees and talking to Him?
stop with your religious stuff. keep it too yourself we don't need it or want it.
So take the religion out, and replace God with mother Nature Tom.
Point taken Jason.
Tom, I'm an Atheist too, why get all worked up over a figure of speech though ?
Because then I'd have dirty knees and no answers.
I love cows.
To all those profesional "thinkers" who have gotten degrees of some sort in one way or another and work on this genetically modification of food, dont you get it?! enzymes,proteins and whatever is there naturally, is there for a reason. Nature has evolved for millions of years! Stop acting like you can perfect it.
If you cant drink milk then, you dont drink fugging milk!
I want to hear the day you produce a vaccine that takes the smell out of my @!$%#
Sure, nature has evolved for millions of years. We've just been playing with it for thousands.
Rice is not supposed to have a high enough yield to be a staple crop.
When we get cancer we're supposed to die.
When they come up with a vaccine that will take the smell out of...yours, you probably won't take it but I will if the tests show it's safe (as in tests done by an impartial entity, not the biotech company marketing it). I'll also go out and eat something like 30 crab rangoon once they have hypoallergenic crab.
Progear, Obama has appointed several Monsanto lobbyists to high levels in our government. Monsanto is controlled by Bill Gates, as is MSNBC. Obama got campaign oriented media coverage in exchange ( and with a major bias I might add).
Who are you going to trust to test this stuff when the wolves are guarding the sheep ?
This is pretty cool. If it becomes widespread, it would certainly be a good alternative for those who need it...after lots of testing, of course.
Please leave the cows alone, we abuse them too much as it is... Also, what becomes of the genetically altered male offspring - do they slaughter them for genetically altered veal or do they slaughter them as waste, since they can not use the male offspring?
NO GMO's !!!! I DON'T want food or food products that are "engineered" !......enough already !
just my opinion i think daisy's cute.
She's hot. I want her.
Better Living Through Chemistry
Cool, more messing with nature. Pretty soon we won't be eating anything that resembles animals and plants.
Just like how all the engineered crops are already killing off the honey bee. Good job. *claps*
All the bees. I meant to bring that up as well. Bees pollinate 98% of all terrestrial plants on Earth.
Where will we be if they all die ?
Messing with nature? Do you pine for the natural herds of slow moving over bloated bovines that roamed the planet in prehistoric times, no such thing ever existed. The vast majority of the food we all consume never existed in nature as it does today, no wheat, no corn, no rice, no cow, no chicken and a hundred other things, a notable exception being fish and sorgum, so where do you draw the line on messing with nature? For that matter what is "natural", because that word is a moving target.
Perfect example of 2 leggeds messing with nature to have what may be a short future--and what does exist will be perfectly distorted...from flora and fauna to us and everything on Planet Earth...
How did fools come to put their everything into the gov and science:
Why not track a few more wolfves and Wild horses and Burros: they did fine before science rolled in with things they didn't get to do as a kid...but now are into greater distortions... or white collar criminals practicing on creation.
huh?
Don't you morons get it? Milk is bad for people because it's PROCESSED, not because it contains lactose. Most "lactose intolerance" is actually a normal, healthy reaction to the gosh-awful hormones, antibiotics, indigestible feed, pasteurization and homogenization that go into what we call "milk". It's not milk and it's not food. And nobody needs to drink it! The dairy industry paid the FDA to put it in the food pyramid, but guess what? Whole entire cultures THRIVE without any dairy in their diet!!!
Pour your milk down the drain, everyone, unless it's raw. And don't feed it to your cat either - it will kill your poor kitty if you feed it too much.
I would advise all people to stop eating corn, but because it's in everything, we no longer can avoid it.
Cows eat corn now. They have been genetically modified to as corn is cheaper to feed them. Cows are supposed to eat grass.
Cows make all dairy products, so have a milkshake, you are ingesting BMO toxins. Same for pizza, candy, cereal, milk, butter, cheese, processed foods. Hell, damn near everything we eat. Our pets are being fed it. The "fillers" are always corn products.
Great, we are all eating toxic, cancer causing corn several times a day with nearly every bite unless you grew it yourself. Even then, the vegetable seeds have been genetically modified as well.
The only choice left is to eat wild foods. Oh.....that's right......deer corn.
I love my soy milk – even more!
Since cow's milk is made for baby cows, could it be possible that humans shouldn't drink it??? I bet baby cows don't have allergies to their mama's milk. This experiment, as are so many, is disgusting.
Yum now we don't have to worry about gmo products..we got gmo cows! Only idiots would be excited about this.
We will see very soon how this GMO crap is going to kill americans off...Russian's have already rejected any corn from the USA because of studies the french have done on GMO corn. IT CAUSES CANCER IN A BIG WAY!! and America is the only country that is NOT giving you a choice wether to eat it or not...here in America they are hiding it because this is what they intend on feeding you wether you want it or not. GMO is banned in every other county except America. Does anybody see anything wrong with that? Our government is telling our farmers that if they dont grow this corn then they will not survive economically. they are being told they will get rich b y growing this garbage, and if you havent noticed , they listened because they stopped growing food and have replaced it with this corn.
MO-1896117
I love my soy milk – even more!
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Soy is one of the most genetically modified food sources there is. Soy, and consequently, Soy "Milk", is terrible for you.
Soy milk tastes weird. I've tried it more then once and I just don't get the fascination other then getting away from cow milk. The only milk I truly enjoy drinking is chocolate milk. Yum.
Why switch to goal milk, which is so much more like human milk and doesn't
cause allergies, when you can genetically re-engineer a cow to make it more
convenient...for whom?
Talk about the stupidity of making things as hard as possible just to prove you
can do them.
Don't care for goats milk either. Or goat cheese. I must be a true city slicker.
This grotesque! Humans are so arrogant. People who are sensitive to milk should avoid it! No need to go fooling around with DNA and create yet another Frankenfood.
Out of concern for you and anyone else drinking soy milk... anywhere from 85% - 93% of US soy beans are GM. So, you will still be consuming GMO's unless you are drinking organic/non-GMO soy milk.
not eating animals, prepared meals, and GMO crops is a simple way to avoid this.. For these things to take place requires active participation by everyday people..