First Goat Kids With Human Genes Born in Belarus

MosNews
Apr. 11, 2006

The first two kids have been born into an experimental herd of goats with a transplanted human gene in Belarus, the head of a Russian-Belarussian transgenic research project said on Monday.

Alexander Budevich who is also a staff member of the Belarussian Cattle Breeding Research Institute said the kids “do not show any signs of ailment or abnormal development. Yet scientists must still verify that the kids are transgenic,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Russian genetics experts will come to the Belarussian institute on Tuesday to take samples of skin from the kid’s ear for a gene test. The test will show whether the kids are transgenic, he said.

“The probability of the appearance of transgenic animals is very small. Only two or three transgenic kids may be born to 100 goats into which human genes were transplanted,” he said.

Last May, proteins of human origin were transferred into the goats’ DNA. Woman’s lactoferrin was brought into the DNA of over 100 animals from an experimental herd belonging to the Belarus institute.