A washingtonpost.com article from kripadasi@hotmail.com

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Monday, March 26, 2001 4:28 PM

A washingtonpost.com article from kripadasi (AT) hotmail (DOT) com

 

 

> You have been sent this message from kripadasi (AT) hotmail (DOT) com as a courtesy

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> Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com).

>

> Hare Krishna Prabhus, thought it would be good to post this on the cow

> conference. I'm going to try to come up with a letter to the editor (from

me

> personally, not IC), perhaps we all should send one. YS, krpa dd ISKCON

> Communications

>

> To view the entire article, go to

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51619-2001Mar24.html

>

> Cloned Cows Are Fetching Big Bucks

>

> DEFOREST, Wis. -- One evening last autumn, stagehands lowered the lights

in a

> crowded coliseum near here. Spotlights lit the stage. Fog billowed from

> machines. Speakers thumped with the heart-stopping orchestral music from

"2001:

> A Space Odyssey." Emerging from a fog bank, a cow strutted across the

stage.

> Her name was Mandy, one of the world's prized Holstein dairy cows, worth

about

> $120,000. She was on the auction block -- sort of -- that October evening

at

> the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. It wasn't Mandy herself who was

being

> sold by auctioneer Tom Morris. It was her clone, yet to be born. When the

> gavel fell, a cattle breeding syndicate in Minnesota had bid $82,000 for a

> Mandy clone. It is to be delivered in September. On a farm near DeForest,

its

> exact location a secret, clones of Mandy are growing today inside

> surrogate-mother cows. Four years after the debut of Dolly the sheep,

cloned

> animals are a laboratory curiosity no longer. They are moving, slowly b!

> ut surely, onto the American farmstead. One cloning company has returned

at

> least a half-dozen cloned animals to American farms this year. Two of

them,

> clones of a famed Holstein named Zita, are living on a dairy farm in

western

> Maryland. Others born in recent months are nearing the age when they will

be

> delivered to eager buyers. Cloning animals is fast turning into a real

> business. At least two American companies are actively marketing cloning

> services to farmers and ranchers. Owners of the most valuable beef and

dairy

> breeding stock may not all be ready to embrace cloning, but some are

putting

> cells from their animals into storage, just in case. For the moment

cloning

> remains expensive, as much as $50,000 per animal when all costs are

figured in.

> It is therefore worthwhile only for the most valuable breeding stock. But

costs

> are falling. The era seems to be fast approaching when the offspring of

cloned

> cattle will enter commerce as meat, and milk from cloned cows and t!

> heir offspring will show up in plastic jugs at the grocery store. No

> regulations prohibit the introduction of cloned animals into the U.S. food

> supply -- nor is there any public outcry for regulation. Farmers involved

in

> cloning note that they have not altered the genes of their animals in the

way

> that big seed companies have altered some crops. They are simply making

> copies.<h1>Rules and Regulations</h1> Research is underway to test whether

the

> milk from cloned cows will be similar to that from regular cows.

Scientific

> theory suggests it will be indistinguishable. The development of

commercialized

> cloning has been discussed at the Food and Drug Administration and the

> Department of Agriculture, and the companies involved are keeping those

> agencies apprised. So far neither agency has seen grounds to intervene.

The

> cattle associations that safeguard the genetic purity of their breeds are

> discussing how to handle clones, and at least two have already adopted

formal

> rules!

> . The Holstein Association USA, perhaps the most influential of these

groups,

> has begun registering clones and conferring on them a special designation

that

> indicates how they were created. "I can see the day when I could

theoretically

> call up and order a thousand Mandys to be delivered to me at such-and-such

a

> date for my big dairy," said Morris, a leading Holstein auctioneer for 30

> years. "It could take a while, but I can see it coming."<h1>Buying Stock

in

> Cloning</h1> Indeed, one of the two major cloning companies, Infigen Inc.

of

> DeForest, is already setting up a "model dairy" with cloned cows to test

how

> well the concept will work. Meanwhile, Infigen and Advanced Cell

Technology

> Inc. of Worcester, Mass., are talking about initial public offerings of

stock

> in the next year or two. It may soon be possible, in other words, to buy

> shares in a company whose primary source of revenue is cloning farm

animals.

> Infigen claims to be further along than any other company at !

> making cloning efficient and, thus, economical. During a recent tour

designed

> to prove his point, President Michael Bishop took a reporter and

photographer

> to several small, unmarked farms leased by the company in the rolling

hills of

> Wisconsin dairy country. He showed off scores of clones. The company has

> created 110 cattle clones and about 30 pig clones, he said. Numerous

> pregnancies are underway. Of the embryos it implants in surrogate cows in

> cloning attempts, just 17 percent result in live births. Still, that's an

> impressive figure when most laboratories are still reporting 3 percent to

5

> percent success rates. At one point in the tour, 10 identical clones --

part

> of the model dairy program -- were lined up. Bishop and his employees have

> taken to giving clone pairs whimsical names. One set of cow clones is

named

> Cookies and Cream, and another pair is named Carbon and Copy. "It's a

little

> like Noah's ark," livestock manager Greg Mell said. "You've got two of

this

> kin!

> d, two of that kind." Bishop is shooting to get the company's efficiency

up

> from 17 percent into the 40 percent range, a level that could make cloning

> economical for a wide swath of the nation's farmers and ranchers. "You

just

> came down a valley that has more clones in it than any place in the

world,"

> Bishop said after the tour. "We're pushing the technology to its limits to

> determine its commercial potential." For decades, most scientists thought

> cloning was impossible. Nearly every cell of an animal's body has a

complete

> copy of its genetic information, but as the animal matures in the womb,

those

> cells become specialized as liver cells, skin cells and so forth. It was

> thought that once they had specialized, there was no way to turn back the

clock

> and use them as the template for building a new individual. But in 1997,

> scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland disproved this dogma. As

they

> and their successors have developed the technique, cloning involves takin!

> g mature cells from an adult animal (usually from its ear), growing more

cells

> in the laboratory and implanting the nucleus from one cell into an egg

cell

> from which the nucleus has been removed. Some ill-understood mechanism in

the

> hollowed-out egg "resets" the adult genetic material and, in successful

cases,

> the newly created "egg" begins dividing as if it had been fertilized

normally.

> The microscopic embryo is transferred to the womb of a surrogate mother.

Much

> can go wrong over the next few months, and this is one of the most

significant

> concerns to emerge about the cloning of farm animals. A large percentage

of

> surrogate mothers spontaneously abort early in pregnancy, presumably

because

> the fetuses are abnormal. Problems serious enough to threaten the life of

the

> mother can crop up late in the pregnancy. And of calves born alive, a

> disproportionate number die in their first few days. Animal welfare groups

> have cited these problems in arguing that cloning should be ban!

> ned or at least developed more slowly. Noting the potential for animal

> suffering, the Humane Society of the United States, for example, has

raised

> sharp questions about the necessity of animal cloning. "Do we have

sufficient

> knowledge to really improve upon nature?" said Michael W. Fox, a

veterinarian

> and senior scholar in bioethics for the humane society. "There's an

element of

> arrogance here -- that we have the technology so let's use it." The

companies

> involved say they are concerned about animal welfare and are working to

> minimize risks. If a live offspring is born from a cloning attempt, it

will be

> virtually identical, genetically, to the adult animal from which the

original

> nucleus was taken. And if a newborn calf lives through its first few

weeks, it

> seems to be fine from then on. Healthy clones do not differ in any obvious

way

> from other animals. Their behavior is the same. In fact, in cows and

goats,

> genetically identical clones often don't look alike, possib!

> ly because the animal's coat markings are influenced to some degree by

> conditions in the surrogate mother's womb. Whether clones will be as

healthy as

> other animals in the long term remains an open question. Most Americans

have

> never seen a clone in the flesh, but farm families have encountered them

at

> livestock shows and auctions over the past couple of years. These

observers

> always say they were struck by how normal the animals seem.<h1>Names for

Fine

> Cows</h1> On a recent day, a friendly man named Ronald Bader strolled

through a

> dairy barn in Illinois, a few miles south of the Wisconsin line. He wore

> ostrich-skin boots, a tan leather jacket and a tan cowboy hat. He is the

grand

> old man of an empire: He founded one of the nation's largest advertising

> agencies focusing on agriculture. He and his children farm 11,000 acres

across

> northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Among the holdings of Bader's

> Carrousel Farms is a champion dairy herd, and the cow formally known as!

> C Lauduc Broker Mandy, registered Holstein No. 15638060, is one of his

stars.

> Like fine wines and fine art, fine cows have provenance. They get

complicated

> names that tell something of their ancestry. Their milk production

records,

> performance in the show ring and various other data are tracked as

carefully as

> a baseball player's statistics. "Somebody says, 'My cow is better than

your

> cow,' " Bader said. "You say, 'No, mine is better than yours.' You take

them to

> the show to find out." Mandy is 8, getting up in years for a cow, but she

> still wins awards. In her glory days she placed first or second in several

of

> the most prestigious Holstein competitions. Cows at Mandy's level are

valued

> principally for their genes. Their offspring can upgrade the genetics of

an

> entire herd, improving a farmer's milk output and bottom line. She gazed

> nonchalantly the other day as Bader and his hands pointed out some of the

> traits -- her wide hips, her taut udder with its bulging veins -!

> - that make her a fine cow. "She's got a beautiful udder," declared the

herd

> superintendent, Perry Phend. Some of her most important statistics hung on

a

> placard above her head, looking like a job candidate's résumé. The idea of

> cloning champion animals has been floating around since Dolly the sheep

was

> announced, and Bader had idly discussed it with his employees. Still, when

> Morris, the auctioneer, called a while back to pitch the idea of selling a

> Mandy clone at the World Dairy Expo, the Olympics of the dairy industry,

Bader

> was taken aback. "The first reaction is just a little bit of shock," he

said.

> "Should we be doing this? Is this something we ought to be messing around

with,

> any of us?" He changed his mind when he saw Infigen's clones. He gave the

> go-ahead, resulting in the first sale of a clone at auction, at the Expo

in

> Madison on Oct. 6. The Mandy clone is likely to become prize breeding

stock for

> the Landox Syndicate of Minneapolis. "We've been approached to !

> sell some more," Morris said. "We're going to pick and choose very

carefully."

> The idea is starting to spread around the country. On a family-run dairy

farm

> near Williamsport in western Maryland, Charles Wiles, his son Greg and

their

> extended family have been celebrating the February birth of two cloned

calves.

> They are clones of Con Acres HS Zita-ET, registered Holstein No. 14411844,

a

> champion cow that was for a time the top-ranked Holstein in the country.

She

> raised the Wiles family's profile sky-high in the world of Holstein

breeders.

> They decided last year to have her cloned, after seeing marketing

materials

> from Cyagra LLC, then a separate company but now the agricultural division

of

> Advanced Cell Technology, the Massachusetts company. By dire happenstance,

Zita

> died from a spinal injury around the time her clones were born. Greg Wiles

> planted his feet against a bitter wind the other day as the calves, held

in a

> simple pen, mooed and licked a visitor's hands. They !

> are named Genesis and Cyagra. "They're normal in every way," Wiles said.

It is

> striking, he said, how much they behave like the young Zita. "They kind of

take

> up where she left off." The Wileses have saved cells from Zita and intend

to

> create more clones. They recently sold a future Zita clone at auction in

> Hagerstown for $49,000. They may bank cells from other animals. While

clone

> auctions are splashy, a more common practice is likely to be a simple

contract

> between a cloning company and a farmer or rancher. Advanced Cell

Technology and

> Infigen are avidly pursuing what they call the "contract cloning" market.

> Dairy producers are in the vanguard, but cloning could ultimately have an

even

> greater impact on the economics of beef production. People in the

industry

> say a beef producer who got his hands on a prize bull might well decide to

have

> it cloned, putting, say, 10 copies out on the range to breed with cows and

> upgrade the whole herd. Cloning has certainly been an!

> answer to an unusual problem encountered by Larry Coleman at his Limousin

beef

> cattle ranch in Charo, Mont. A champion bull of the Limousin breed, a fine

> French breed popular in this country in recent decades, was born on his

ranch.

> Limousin breeders were dazzled by Cole First Down 46D, which seemed to

have

> every desirable trait in a bull. But First Down was laid low by a severe

> infection of the scrotum before he reached his full potential as a semen

donor.

> The bull was saved by medical intervention but never produced normal semen

> again. He later died. When Coleman sells what remains of First Down's

frozen

> semen, a unit sufficient to impregnate one cow can bring $500, 25 times

the

> usual price for top Limousin semen. Coleman is paying Infigen to have

First

> Down cloned, and two young clones have been born in Wisconsin. A healthy

bull

> with desired traits can produce as much as $12,000 worth of semen a week

even

> at normal prices, so Coleman is fired up. He confesses he had t!

> he same worries that everyone else has about cloning, but he got over

them.

> "Sometimes, sure, you have some doubt, wondering if you're doing the right

> thing," he said. "We just had to make a decision and not look back."

>

>