Researchers put mouse gene in cattle to make them less susceptible to TB

A team of researchers working at Northwest A&F University in China has found that introducing a particular mouse gene into cattle can give them better protection against tuberculosis.

TB infections in cattle costs growers in many countries millions of dollars every year, the current strategy for combating the disease is to separate those that are infected from those that are not, and then either kill the infected animals, or try to keep them alive long enough to get them to slaughter. Neither approach has been satisfactory. In this new effort, the team in China sought to find out if a way might be had to give cattle immunity to the disease via genetic modification.

The team looked to mice, which are immune to Mycobacterium bovis, the patogen that causes bovine TB—they have a gene (SP110) that protects them. Using a technique called Transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) the team extracted the gene from a mouse sample and spliced it into the genome of 23 calves—13 of which lived to grow to be adults.

To see if the gene had any impact, the researchers deliberately placed pathogen samples directly into the lungs of three of the genetically modified cattle and three normal cows serving as a control group. One of the GM cows showed no signs of infection and the other two exhibited only moderate symptoms. The three normal cows all showed normal infections.