Cows to Make Human Milk?

A scientist at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and another one from the China Agricultural University have said they and fellow researchers have created a herd of cows that can produce milk that has characteristics of human milk. As of this posting, not much has been revealed about how they did it. Nutrients like gamma linoleic aid, an essential fatty acid, are found in human milk, but not in milk from cows or goats, in significant quantities.

The goal for the marketplace is to have this mass-produced human milk from cows in grocery stores in about two years. One of the scientists, Li Ning, said, “In ancient China, only the emperor and the empress could drink human milk throughout their lives, which was believed to be the height of opulence. Why not make that kind of milk more available for ordinary people?” (Source: Chinadaily.com) The cow herd experienced some gene manipulation in order to get them to produce milk with human traits.

Human milk was used last year to make cheese by a New York chef. His project created quite a stir on the Web, but humans have been consuming their own milk for an extremely long time, to good effect.

In China the cow-generated human milk will be subjected to various tests over a 22-month period in order to find out if it is safe for human consumption. If all goes well, it might be on sale fairly soon. Should it become popular, will cow-human milk then eventually become a common product available outside of China also?

Image Credit: Janine Chedid

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Lucy B.

1:07PM PDT on May 29, 2012

What the heck? You know, we all sign so many petitions, try to eat local food, do to others what we'd want them to do to us etc. and then a bunch of sick people with diplomas come up with revolting, destructive ideas such as this one... It's quite tiring really.

May 29
send a green star

Mari s.

9:27AM PDT on May 29, 2012

Involved :P Typos try SILK instead poor animals

9:26AM PDT on May 29, 2012

Silk does it better and no animal is envolved

Waltraud U.

9:18AM PDT on May 29, 2012

some think they are god !
they have a consciousness without any basic-knowledge, we call it dilletantism.
ty

Sue M.

9:02PM PST on Feb 25, 2012

thanks

February 25
send a green star

jayasri a.

2:44PM PST on Feb 25, 2012

Good comment, Bill.

2:43PM PST on Feb 25, 2012

Rick C.

4:06PM PST on Jan 15, 2012

ISN'T IT GRAND, WHAT A COLLEGE EDUCATION CAN CREATE?

January 15
send a green star

8:55AM PST on Jan 14, 2012

When dairy cows become too weak and sick to produce enough milk they are sent to slaughter to become the burgers on our plates. I wonder how many of you that support this human/cow gene splicing and manipulation would willingly and knowingly sit down to a meal of these animals?