Genetically hornless cows
Genetic engineers deprived cows of horns
Dairy cows often have to cut off the horns with which they can injure those who take care of them. However, this procedure costs money, and besides, it is unpleasant for the cows themselves, which animal rights defenders do not get tired of talking about.
The problem was solved by the achievements of molecular biology and genetic engineering – the authors of a recent article in Nature Biotechnology (Carlson et al., Production of hornless dairy cattle from genome-edited cell lines – VM) describe how they managed to make "genetically hornless" cows: a gene that suppresses the growth of horns was embedded in the DNA of embryos. (By the way, this gene is usually found in meat breeds, in the genome of which it has settled as a result of many years of artificial selection; only 25% of such cows have to endure the procedure of cutting horns – against 80% in dairy breeds.)
Then the modified embryos were transplanted to mother cows, and after some time five healthy calves were born, which did not grow any horns.
A picture from the website of Recombinetics, the creator of genetically hornless cows – VM.
However, it will take a lot of time to supply a more or less significant number of animals with the "hornless gene" in this way, so perhaps researchers will find some kind of genetic engineering method for this, faster and cheaper.
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16.05.2016