The sky’s the limit – or is DNA? 🧬

🔬 It seems that looking deep inside is the way to the future – and by that, we mean really deep, at a genetic level. Indeed, gene editing is already being applied to agriculture and medicine, and could be the answer for the pork industry as well – particularly regarding disease resistance.

    • The subject was the focus of a Swine Innovation Porc panel discussion, held in conjunction with the 2023 Banff Pork Seminar. 

🦠 A geneticist with the University of Guelph uses a PRRS resistant pig as an example: removing a protein on the surface of the cell that the virus needs to attach through gene editing has induced resistance in that animal. So at this point, instead of using antibiotics and drugs, we could gene edit a pig breed that is naturally resistant to a pathogen. That would mean major advances in disease resistance, productivity, and even animal welfare.