Wednesday, December 3, 2014

A New Breed

A New Breed







This article is about the World Dairy Expo and the animals that are involved. This expo is basically a beauty pageant for cows. During the competition the judges ended up picking three cows who hailed from the same cow. The clone came in first and the daughter came in third while the original cow came in second. There has never been three winners all from the same family. Cloning now has become relegated and has become the cheaper method of selecting favorable genes for a farmer’s livestock. The process consists with analyzing 13,000 nucleotide polymorphism and based on the SNPs patterns a breeder can find out the quality when the calf becomes an adult. Things that the breeders are interested in consist with milk production, milk fat content and body size. Through genetic testing breeders and farmers can find out much faster the quality of the animal. The breeders used methods such as vitro fertilization (IVF) to insert the sex gametes into to the cow of their desire. IVF’s run up to 10,000 dollars but if the farmers produce an elite cow, that cow can sell for 100,000 dollars; which makes it very worth it. Some breeders even push for genetically engineered beef cattle. There have been critics that state that cloned animals do not belong in breeding competitions.     




I enjoy reading articles like this. I find it very interesting how far we have come. While I do agree that cloned livestock should not be in breeding competitions. That would completely change what it would take to win those competitions; it would come down to who has the most money to buy the better genes. I think cloning should just be used as a way to produce the best cattle for food purposes.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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