KC & the Sunshine Cow
By Charles Q. Choi
On supporting science journalism
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Breeding cows for beef is often slow because the qualities of a top-grade cut, marbling and tenderness, are unknown until after a cow is slaughtered. That may change soon thanks to a newborn calf born healthy to the first cow cloned from a beef carcass. The mother, KC, is named after the kidney cell from which she was cloned. Her calf, Sunshine, was born naturally in mid-December, lively and fit at 72 pounds. The technology used to generate KC could also clone an animal from a freshly processed cut of beef, says Steven Stice, an animal scientist at the University of Georgia. Although cloned animals cannot legally enter the food chain, their offspring might soon: later this year the Food and Drug Administration is expected to weigh in on the safety of eating such animals, which an earlier FDA draft deemed safe.
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