Comparison of milk produced by cows cloned by nuclear transfer with milk from non-cloned cows.
Cloning technologies, including embryo splitting and nuclear transfer, were introduced into dairy cattle breeding in the early 1980s. With the recent worldwide attention on the cloning of sheep ("Dolly") and cows ("Gene"), the potential food safety concerns for food products derived from cloned animals needs to be addressed. There has been no study of the composition of milk produced by cloned cows. In this preliminary study, we evaluated the composition of milk from 15 lactating non-embryonic cell cloned cows and six non-cloned lactating cows over a single season. The cloned cows came from five unique genetic lines and three distinct breeds. Milk samples were analyzed for total solids, fat, fatty acid profile, lactose, protein and compared to non-cloned and literature values. Gross chemical composition of milk from cloned cows was similar to that of the non-cloned cows and literature values. Our results lead us to conclude that there are no obvious differences in milk composition produced from cloned cows compared to non-cloned cows.
Walsh
Marie K
MK
Nutrition and Food Sciences Department, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA. mkwalsh@cc.usu.edu
Lucey
John A
JA
Govindasamy-Lucey
Selvarani
S
Pace
Marvin M
MM
Bishop
Michael D
MD
D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000502:physiology*; D019976:Cloning, Organism; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D008892:Milk / Q000737:chemistry*; D008894:Milk Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D053652:Nuclear Transfer Techniques
D005227:Fatty Acids; D008894:Milk Proteins