How to Clone a Tasty T-Bone

It might not occur to you that the enormous slabs of beef hanging in a meat locker would make first-rate research material. But that’s how scientists at ViaGen think. The small biogenetics company, based in Austin, Taxes, has made a specialty of cloning animals – including a pair of cloned mules that made headlines last month when they lost a race against naturally bred mules. But beef cows are more marketable than racing mules, and the very best beef has special properties that makes it particularly attractive to cloners.

Only 2% of the beef in the US gets stamped with the top US Department of Agriculture (USDA) grade prime, which indicates that it has just the right mix of marbling and firm muscle to make a juicy steak. Cloning the best beef wouldn’t guarantee a first-rate steak, but it might make the process of producing one a lot less hit or miss.

ViaGen began focusing on prime beef five years ago and has succeeded in cloning half a dozen animals from the tissue of slaughtered cows. The company’s scientists won’t know for sure whether the cows have all the features that made the originals so sought after until it raises and sacrifices the animals, something it is not ready to do.

Even if the cloning works, there’s no guarantee that the meat will be as pleasing to the palate as the original. Every animal is a product of its genes and the conditions under which it was raised – the temperature and climate in which it lives, the food it eats, the diseases that afflict it.

Still, ViaGen scientists are hopeful that by meticulously documenting what their clones eat and how they live, the company will be able to determine the perfect blend of genes and lifestyle to get high yields of prime grade-1 cattle. Those cows could then be bred to produce cattle with a good shot at getting the USDA’s highest stamp of approval. If it works, ViaGen could end up with some valuable breeding stock – and the rest of us with some very tasty steaks.

Source: Time, 2006, July 10

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