Bacon: as we all know comes from pigs, but it is also one of the most popular pieces of meat on this planet. Pig farming contributes to a major part of our diet. From bacon to ham, there’s so many meat groups and foods you can make from pig meat. For years, we have used pigs solely for food and cooking, but now things are changing and a new use is arising. Just like the food shortage in certain parts of the world, we also have a wide scale shortage of donated organs. With this in mind researchers have turned to our close friends for help.
A biotech company in southwest Virginia is working on a way to use cloned farm animals to produce organs for human organ transplants. They have been working on this for over 20 years. The compound where they are working, which will not be directly disclosed for safety purposes, is made up of 22 buildings and a census of pigs. They have around 300 pigs, which are all being used for research. In this facility, many precautions are taken to prevent the pigs from coming in contact with pathogens. All the piglets they’re working on are genetically modified and are clones similar to storm troopers.
To create these clones, they use top of the line gene modifying technologies to conduct a similar process used to create Dolly the sheep. They use this method to create the cloned embryos; they remove the genetic material from the eggs, and then put the genetically modified pig skin cells in its place. Afterwards, they send an electric signal through them to fuse the genetically modified skin cells with the eggs. This activates the cell division starting the formation of the embryo. The resulting embryo is surgically implanted into the womb of an adult female pig. These pigs are then born later on with ten genetic modifications to control growth of their organs. This is done to prevent blood clots growing too big, and being rejected by the human body’s immune system.
Along with producing compatible organs for human transplants, these pigs are modified to have heavy muscling. These pigs are even seen to be very smart creatures and occasionally are observed playing soccer with each other. Even having very diverse personalities. Their goal is to eventually be able to run commercial farms like this facility across the country to combat the number of people who die due to not being able to get an organ for a transplant. Even lowering the number of people on the organ wait list from its current level of 100,000 people.
While they are really close there is still work that needs to be done, with a few more years and more research they should be able to commercially produce organs that will save thousands of lives, but the question is whether people will support their efforts to help or try to destroy them
