Alert OF THE WEEK
Researchers at the China Agricultural University say they have forcefully inserted genetically modified human genes into cows to produce a breast-milk-like substance.
The research was funded by the Beijing GenProtein Biotechnology Company which hopes to soon sell its genetically modified dairy products in supermarkets.
Like cows injected with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone before them, these new "humanized" dairy cows are likely to suffer poor health while producing milk that is nutritionally inferior and more likely to trigger an allergy or increase cancer risks in the children or adults who drink it.
Cloned and genetically modified animals also suffer greater health problems, increased mortality and a high number of still births.
Food produced from these animals is dangerous for humans because the insertion of foreign genes into DNA strands remains an inexact science. These foreign genes hit the DNA strands in random spots, changing the way they are expressed (turned on and turned off) and creating proteins never before ingested by human beings. These novel proteins could prove dangerous for large segments of the human population who find they are allergic to them.
