New Zealand Clones Cows for Cheaper Cheese

New Zealand scientists have cloned genetically modified cows to make the first GM milk for sale in shops and supermarkets.

The team - from a centre belonging to a government-owned research institute in Hamilton, 80 miles south of Auckland - say that the cows will make cheese-making quicker and easier.

Britain, Europe and the US have sheep, goats and cattle genetically engineered to produce proteins to treat people with haemophilia and cystic fibrosis.

A herd of goats has even been engineered to yield spider's silk in their milk. But the New Zealand researchers are the first to produce GM milk for commercial cheese.

Cheese is made from the thick curds which are produced when milk is separated into curds and whey using rennet.

The scientists have managed to boost two proteins which improve this process. The first protein, kappa casein, is crucial to the curdling which produces the curds, while beta casein improves the action of the rennet and makes the curds firmer.

The genetically modified cows produce more than twice as much kappa protein, and raise beta casein levels by up to a fifth.

"When projected on to the production scale of the dairy industry, the increases observed in our study represent large changes that would translate into substantial economic gains," the authors write in the current issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.

They managed to produce the herd of cloned cows by genetically engineering cell nuclei to produce an overabun dance of the casein proteins. The genetic material was then fused into cow eggs. Cloned embryos were then implanted into cows' wombs, producing 11 calves, of which nine produced extra casein.

Sue Mayer, the director of the genetic modification campaign group Genewatch UK, said the process would cause unjustifiable harm to farm animals.

"If you look at the tests of this sort of technology on mice, you encounter all sorts of health problems as they get older," she said. "I don't see how the benefits to the cheese industry can justify that sort of suffering."

The Ruakura research centre in Hamilton is part of the government-owned research institute AgResearch.

The institute had previously been famous for pioneering the use of "cow windows" - a removable plug leading into the animal's stomach which allowed researchers to examine its contents at will.

The organisation has been the target of attacks by anti-GM campaigners, including a petrol bomb being thrown over the wall of the centre and the writing of graffiti on the house of a leading researcher.

Dairy products are still New Zealand's main industry, earning £2.4bn last year, and the annual value of exports of cheese and casein alone comes to nearly £900m.

Genetic modification is potentially big business for the dairy industry.

In a case filed before the country's high court last year, New Zealand's biggest milk producer Fonterra was accused of suppressing information linking one of the proteins used in the latest study - beta casein A1 - to autism, schizophrenia, diabetes and heart disease.

The case was launched by a competitor, the A2 Milk corporation, which had used selective breeding to ensure that only the beta casein A2 protein was contained in its products.