Transgenic Enviropig has mouse and E.coli DNA. It can digest phosphorous to be less polluting.
Under development for more than a decade, the University of Guelph's 20 Enviropigs are close behind a Canadian-made supersized salmon in a race to become the first genetically modified animals allowed into the food system.
Scientists created the first Enviropig in 1999 by combining genetic material from E. coli bacteria and a snippet of mouse DNA. The gene alteration allows the pig to produce phytase, an enzyme regular pigs lack, which helps it digest naturally occurring plant phosphorous in its feed more efficiently.
The benefits of Enviropig are that farmers would no longer need to supplement pigs' diets with mineral phosphate or commercially produced phytase, thus reducing feed costs, and they would decrease the amount of the nutrient that winds up in pigs' waste – making it less polluting.
Read factlets by:
RSS feed
Email feed
