Source: NZ Herald
AgResearch experiments on genetically modified goats have resulted in the animals producing mostly transgender offspring, which are being milked to find out whether they carry the intended human protein.
The goats have been bred on the state science company’s Ruakura facility in Hamilton, where experiments are being done to create pharmaceuticals.
Soil and Health New Zealand spokesman Steffan Browning, who recently toured the facility, said 75 per cent of the goats were females in sterile male bodies. AgResearch staff refer to them as “goys”.
AgResearch’s general manager of applied biosciences, Dr Jimmy Suttie, said the goats were transgender because of the cell line used to produce them, and had nothing to do with genetic modification.
“It was inadvertent. This is something which normally happens about 10 to 15 per cent of the time in this breed of goat. It just happens to be the cell line that was used.”
Read More: Goy? It’s a girl goat in a boy goat’s body
Cartoon by Bob Moran
