USDA Transfer Disease Resistance Genes Into Cows

WASHINGTON = Apr 4/05 - SNS -- USDA researchers have successfully used gene-transfer technologies to produce dairy cows that resist a widespread bacterial infection called mastitis.

"This research is an important first step in understanding how genes can be used to protect animals from disease," said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

This scientific discovery, published in the current edition of Nature Biotechnology, demonstrates the potential of biotechnology for developing cattle with resistance to mastitis. Currently, vaccines, antibiotics and a cow's own immune system cannot effectively fight the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, a major cause of mastitis.

A scientific team led by Robert J. Wall, an animal physiologist with the ARS Biotechnology and Germplasm Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., built a transgene -- genetic material produced using recombinant DNA technology -- that includes the genetic code for producing a naturally occurring, antimicrobial protein called lysostaphin.

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