Human Breast Milk from Cows
Milk and cookies will have a new dynamic if the latest GM cows are accepted into future markets. Chinese scientists have bred 300 cattle with human genes to attempt to create milk equivalent to human breast milk. It’s being promoted as “an alternative to conventional instant formula.” Since when is breast milk from human breasts so unorthodox?
The scientists seem prepared for the criticism. They say it is safe, nutritious, and beneficial to Asia’s population where 9 in 10 people are lactose intolerant. Hello, Asia? It’s Health Freedoms, you may want to consider other dairy alternatives first… One criticism that always goes uncontested is the animal cruelty genetic engineering poses. “In two experiments by the Chinese in which 42 GM calves were born, just 26 survived. Ten died soon after birth and six died within six months.”
Heidi Stevenson of Gaia Health points out a real reason behind human-like milk:
The primary intention of the researchers can be discerned in this quote from the second paragraph of the study report:
Furthermore, some reports have shown that HLZ has anti-fungal and anti-viral activities. Moreover, changes in the HLZ concentration in serum or urine is used as a diagnostic marker for certain diseases. Also, HLZ is under study as a potentially useful material for use in food products, cosmetics (as a preservative), medicine feed, baby formula, and so on. The researchers are focused primarily on using HLZ as a chemical. Cows are being genetically modified so that they will produce a chemical that they hope to use as a drug, diagnostic product, and additive to foods and cosmetics. If they can also convince the public that it’s a health food, then the profits will be even greater.
The scientists have also created cows that produce milk with the protein lactoferrin, which assists the immune system in babies. In other instances, they have increased the milk fat and changed the milk solids. However, each of these is a single change. They have not been combined.
The reality is that there has not been any milk produced by cows that comes near duplicating human milk. All that’s been done is the recreation of single human molecules in cow’s milk. [Emphasis Health Freedom's]
On the subject of hype and human genes, she says, “Perhaps they will ultimately manage to create cows that produce a human-like milk. First, though, the only thing that makes sense is that they intend to use the human molecules produced by the cows’ milk to evade questions about patenting human genes…Don’t expect to see any human-like milk products on store shelves. That’s nothing but a trick of redirection away from the genuine ethical issue of patenting human genetics.” [Emphasis added]
It is expected to go on market within ten years, but with countries like the UK already marketing unlabelled dairy and beef from cloned offspring and human genes created in rice, it could be acceptable much sooner – or at the least the idea of patenting human genes for this purpose.
Have I mentioned how thankful I am for almond milk?
~Health Freedoms
Scientists develop genetically modified cows that produce ‘human’ breast milk
Babies could be fed on ‘human’ milk produced by cows in the wake of the latest developments in genetic modification.
Scientists have bred 300 cattle that have been given human genes to make their milk contain the same nutrients and fat content as breast milk.
They believe the product could offer mothers an alternative to conventional infant formula.
But the move was condemned last night by campaigners who questioned its safety.
Human milk differs from cows’ milk in several important ways. It contains high quantities of nutrients beneficial to a baby’s growth and immune system.
Cows’ milk is much harder for a baby to digest, has less fat and fewer carbohydrates and contains no antibodies that protect against disease.
Prof Ning Li, who led the research at the China Agricultural University, said the milk they produce would be as safe as ordinary cows’ milk.
‘The milk tastes stronger than normal milk,’ he said. ‘Within ten years, people will be able to pick up these human-milk-like products at the supermarket.’
But Patti Rundall, of Baby Milk Action, said: ‘We need to have rules in place to safeguard human health.
‘There could be incredible risks with these products that we don’t know about. Cows’ milk is never going to be like breast milk. It’s never going to be a living product like breast milk.
‘Breast milk is species specific – there is no element of risk.’
Writing in the respected journal Public Library of Science One, Prof Li’s team said they used cloning technology to introduce human genes into the DNA of Holstein dairy cows.
One variety of the GM cows produced milk containing lysozyme – an antimicrobial protein found in breast milk that protects babies from infection. They also created cows that produced human lactoferrin, a protein which boosts the immune system.
A third human milk protein called alpha-lactalbumin was also expressed in the milk. Prof Li claims his team has boosted the milk’s fat content by a fifth and changed the levels of solids to make it close to the composition of human milk.
But campaigners said the creation of GM cattle was bad for animal welfare. In two experiments by the Chinese in which 42 GM calves were born, just 26 survived. Ten died soon after birth and six died within six months.
A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals said: ‘Offspring of cloned animals often suffer health and welfare problems, so this would be a grave concern. Why do we need this milk – what is it giving us that we haven’t already got?’
GeneWatch UK, said: ‘There is a question about whether milk from these cows is going to be safe for humans, and it is really hard to tell that unless you do large clinical trials.’
China’s rules on GM food are more relaxed than those in Europe. The GM milk would not be allowed on sale in Britain unless it was approved by the European Union and passed stringent safety tests.
Some British scientists said the research could be of huge benefit.
Prof Keith Campbell, a biologist at Nottingham University and a member of the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996, said GM animals were not a threat to health unless scientists deliberately gave them a gene that made their milk toxic.
‘Genetically modified food, if done correctly, can provide huge benefit for consumers in terms of producing better products,’ he said.
The modified milk could help boost sales of dairy products in Asia, where more than nine in ten people are lactose intolerant and cannot consume cows’ milk without suffering stomach upsets and cramps.
Prof Li’s team were working with the Beijing GenProtein Biotechnology Company.
By DAVID DERBYSHIRE ENVIRONMENT EDITOR
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1372836/Scientists-develop-genetically-modified-cow-produces-human-breast-milk.html#ixzz1IZVaPkGZ
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/8423536/Genetically-modified-cows-produce-human-milk.html
http://gaia-health.com/articles401/000433-human-genes-cows-produce-human-milk.shtml