While there’s a lot of squealing about the world’s first litter of cloned pigs which were unveiled yesterday in Virginia, one Iowa hog farmer & pork industry official is not shocked by the scientific landmark. He says cloning will likely become more and more prevalent in our society.John McNutt raises hogs near Iowa City & is the immediate past-president of the National Pork Producers Council. The five piglets were created by the same scientists who brought the world the first cloned sheep, Dolly, a few years ago. McNutt says it’s possible Iowa farmers could someday make exact copies of prized pigs, but he doesn’t see the technology going that route.He believes they’ll focus on biomedical work.Researchers say pigs are -physiologically- very close to humans and one goal in the pig cloning process is to provide a new source for organ transplants. McNutt says as science advances, it continues turning back to humble hogs.McNutt says it has yet to be seen if society at large will accept the ethics and other issues involved in the process of cloning pigs for human benefit. The five Virginia piglets were born March 5th and were cloned from a pig named Destiny. Their names are: Millie, Christa, Alexis, Carrel and Dotcom.
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