Editing Scientists In

Scientists in [/news/china/index.html China] have been trying to beat the country's alarming pork shortage by creating the so-called 'super pigs' using gene-editing technologies. <br>More than one million pigs have been killed in China - the world's largest pork producer and consumer - since an outbreak of African swine fever was reported there last year.<br>Experts predict that the country will face a 10.8-million-tonne shortfall of the staple meat this year; and for Chinese researchers, the road to more bacon starts from the conception of [http://www.ehow.com/search.html?s=mutant%20hogs mutant hogs].<br>         Researchers in China are hoping to resolve the country's pork crisis by modifying pigs' genes<br>   RELATED ARTICLES  [# Previous] [# 1] [# Next]     [/news/article-7755783/Kung-fu-cat-leaps-catches-bird-mid-air-astonishing-slow-motion-footage.html   Crouching tiger! 'Kung fu cat' leaps and catches a bird in... ] [/news/article-7755557/Devastated-parents-watch-baby-savagely-slammed-nanny.html   Devastated parents watch their baby being savagely slammed... ] [/news/article-7754881/China-accuses-U-S-government-helping-American-NGOs-plot-Hong-Kong-protests.html   China accuses the U.S. government of helping five American... ] [/news/article-7754723/China-says-U-S-seriously-damages-global-counter-terrorism-effort-Uighur-act.html   Beijing warns Washington is 'seriously damaging' global... ]    <br><br><br><br>Share this article<br>Share<br>41 shares<br><br><br>For the past few years, Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology has endeavoured to produce pigs that grow faster and taste better by modifying the animal's DNA.<br>Its mega-farm in Beijing are populated by experimentally cultivated pigs, which can cope with the city's severe winter better because of a special gene they carry.<br>The team have also successfully bred a type of 'lean pigs' that have 24 per cent less fat than ordinary pigs by editing swine cells. <br>Zhao Jianguo, the company's lead researcher, said he and his co[                 China is said to be breeding giant pigs as big as polar bears that weigh more than 1,100 pounds to cope with a pork shortage after a swine fever outbreak (stock image)<br>Mr Zhao's team is only one of the many labs in China which are racing to save the country's bacon with cutting-edge technologies.<br>Last month, scientists from Nanjing Agricultural University reportedly created China's first piece of lab-grown pork in a milestone project. <br>Professor Zhou Guanghong and his team cultivated the man-made meat, which weighed five grams (0.17 ounces), by harvesting stem cells from the muscle tissue of pigs for 20 days.<br>Zhu Yi, an associate professor of food security and nutrition at China Agricultural University in Beijing, told state-run <a style="font-weight: bold;" class="class" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" website Times][ ] that the taste of faux meat made of animal stem cells would be much closer to real meat than plant-based substitutes. <br>         The price of pork has nearly doubled from a year ago in China,  [https://www.kynghidongduong.vn/tours/tour-trung-quoc-nam-ninh-cong-vien-khung-long-thanh-tu-son-3-ngay.html tour nam ninh] which produces and consumes two-thirds of the world's pork.<br><br>African swine fever has killed more than one million pigs there<br>In October, a farmer in the the city of Nanning in southern China reportedly bred a giant pig the size of a polar bear as part of efforts to cope with the pork shortage.<br>The super-sized swine weighed more than 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) and could fetch owner Pang Cong up to 10,000 yuan (£1,083) at market - more than three times the local average monthly income, it is [/news/article-7544315/Really-pigging-China-breeding-GIANT-pigs-big-polar-bears-cope-pork-shortage.html reported].<br>It's part of a growing move to produce bigger pigs in China. <br>In the province of Jilin in the north-eastern part of the country, the average hog now weighs 175 to 200 kilograms (385 to 440 pounds), compared to the the normal 125 kilograms (275 pounds).<br>The country's top pig breeder, Wens Foodstuffs Group Co, is also said to be trying to increase the average size of their animals.  <br>Pork shortage could be a challenge for many countries in the world in the near future. <br>         Experts predict that the country will face a 10.8-million-tonne shortfall of pork this year<br>Around a quarter of the world's pigs are expected to die from African swine fever, warned Dr.<br><br>Mark Schipp, president of the World Organization for Animal Health.<br>Speaking to reporters in October, Dr Schipp predicted that a sharp reduction in the world's pig population would lead to possible food shortages and high pork prices. <br>'I don't think the species will be lost, but it's the biggest threat to the commercial raising of pigs we've ever seen,' he said.<br>'And  [https://www.kynghidongduong.vn/tours/tour-trung-quoc-nam-ninh-cong-vien-khung-long-thanh-tu-son-3-ngay.html tour du lịch nam ninh] it's the biggest threat to any commercial livestock of our generation.'<br>African swine fever, fatal to hogs but no threat to humans, has wiped out pig herds in many Asian countries.<br><br>Chinese authorities have destroyed about 1.2 million pigs in an effort to contain the disease there since August 2018.<br>The price of pork has nearly doubled from a year ago in China, which produces and consumes two-thirds of the world's pork.<br><div class="art-ins mol-factbox news" data-version="2" id="mol-d4a02830-16bc-11ea-88b2-a7ba9ed78032" website scientists create mutant &apos;super pigs&apos; to beat pork shortage