Should we genetically engineer hogs?

Should we use recombinant DNA techniques to create pigs genetically engineered to suit the preferences of fanners and consumers? In 1982, scientists injected a rat growth hormone gene into the chromosome of a mouse. The resultant animal expressed the rat gene and quickly grew to twice its parents' size.! In 1985, researchers at the United Slates Department ofAgriculture hoped to attain similar results by inserting a human growth hormone gene into the chromosome of a pig. At the Agricultural Experiment Station in Beltsville, Maryland, experimenters successfully microinjected the piece of DNA encoding the production of human somatotropin into the nucleus of a fertilized pig egg. The extracted embryo was reimplanted into a sow's uterus; the pregnant animal came to term; and the fIrst piglet in history with a human gene was bom. The Beltsville research program was not aimed at producing hogs twice the size of their parents but at producing more cost effective swine, pigs that would convert grain into lean meat faster than their parents while eating proportionately less grain. Such animals would be a boon to certain sectors of the agricultural economy, including most of the pork industry, some