A team of researchers has produced a litter of pigs that is genetically resistant to a deadly porcine virus. Randall Prather (pray-thur), a University of Missouri distinguished animal sciences professor tells Brownfield “transmissible gastroenteritis virus”, or TGE, is one of many coronaviruses that are highly contagious and widespread among pigs. MU researchers helped identify the genes that make proteins susceptible to the virus and edited them using CRISPER-cas-9 technology, “We’ve gone in with our editing technology and rearranged a few letter of the three-billion letter genome and basically disrupt it so that it won’t make the protein and the pigs don’t see the virus.”
The research was carried out by the University of Missouri, Kansas State University and Genus P.L.C., a British-based company that sells biotech products to cattle and pig producers.
Continue reading MU produces pigs resistant to TGE virus at Brownfield Ag News.
