Kirin cow: Drunk but not mad?

[Taro Toporific]

Kirin Brewery produces cow immune to BSE Yomiuri / May 31Kirin Brewery Co. has succeeded in producing a cow through genetic manipulation that is immune to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE....it is possible to produce antibodies for medical and pharmaceutical products with BSE-infected cows. But as antibodies produced with such cows may spark consumer anxieties, the two firms decided to produce a cow that is immune to BSE.
Kirin is conducting research on the production of a volume of antibodies to be used in medical products by inserting genes controlling human immunity into the cow's body. ...

[Steve Bildermann]

Kirin Brewery Co, Japan's number-two beer maker, has succeeded in producing a cow that is immune to mad cow disease, but experts said it was too early for livestock producers to celebrate.

Kirin officials said on Monday the company had produced jointly with a U.S. company a cow that carried none of the "prion" proteins that cause the brain-wasting disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

BSE is passed on by an infectious protein particle called a prion. Neither a living organism nor a virus, it is a misshapen protein that can convert other proteins to the deadly form by touching them.

The animal, produced through genetic engineering, is still in its mother's womb and expected to be born early next year, Kirin officials said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=5301689&src=rss/scienceNews&section=news

Nothing has been said yet about the potential for drunk cow disease being transmitted to humans.

[Taro Toporific]

Nothing has been said yet about the potential for drunk cow disease being transmitted to humans.

Stop me if any of you read this this one...
"Have you heard the one about the drunken cow who tried to hitch out of Nagoya at 2am....?

[Steve Bildermann]

Sorry, props to you Taro

Guess I was asleep at da wheel this morning.....