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The Government's biggest science company, Agresearch, has asked regulators to approve a wide-ranging application to genetically engineer 18 different animals for commercial production of pharmaceuticals.
The pastoral science company would develop in the laboratory cell-lines including humans and monkeys, E coli and yeast.
Using these they would develop GE cows, buffalo, sheep, pigs, goats, llamas, alpacas, deer, and horses.
Agresearch obtained the first of a series of approvals eight years ago from the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma), to produce transgenic cows, including animals with copies of human genes and has bred small herds of several transgenic cattle lines.
"Agresearch has now developed a world-leading capability in transgenic livestock research and development," the company said in an application to Erma last month.
It had freedom to operate with all relevant transgenic technologies and the fact that New Zealand was free of certain animal diseases, including BSE (madcow disease), "positions AgResearch and New Zealand to take a leading international role in commercial applications of transgenic livestock".
- NZPA
