GM cow designed to produce milk without an allergy-causing protein

[alp227]

A genetically modified cow whose milk lacks a substance that causes allergic reactions in people has been created by scientists in New Zealand.

In their first year of life, two or three in every hundred infants are allergic to a whey protein in milk called BLG. The researchers engineered the cow, called Daisy, to produce milk that doesn't contain the protein.

While the genetic alteration slashed levels of BLG protein in the cow's milk to undetectable levels, it more than doubled the concentrations of other milk proteins called caseins.

The cow was created with the same cloning procedure that led to Dolly the sheep in 1996 and was delivered by caesarean at the government-owned AgResearch lab in Hamilton.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/01/gm-cow-milk-alllergy-protein

Of course because this is GM food expect a downside. The safer thing for the lactose intolerant would be to find other foods with calcium.

[truedelphi]

1. Don't cloned animals die off rather early compared to

"natural" animals? And isn't it cheaper just to switch a child to drinking goat's milk, or almond milk or soy?

[TexasProgresive]

2. Lactose is a sugar not a protein

To eliminate lactose from milk would make it non-milk. Allergens are usually proteins, like BLG.

Lactose intolerance is an inability to digest lactose because in many people the body ceases to produce the necessary enzyme in child hood. This affects most people of non-European ancestry and some Europeans.