Uncaged Campaigns
St Matthews House, 45 Carver Street, Sheffield S1 4FT
Tel: 0114 2722220
Fax: 0114 2722225
Email: uncaged.anti-viv@dial.pipex.com

NEWS RELEASE

4 January 2001
For immediate use

CAMPAIGNERS SLAM CLONED PIG ORGAN HYPE

"Bio-tech firms exaggerate significance of cruel experiments"

Anti-vivisection organisation Uncaged Campaigns has slammed the recent news that biopharmaceutical firm PPL Therapeutics have produced cloned pigs in a way that they claim 'should prevent their tissues being rejected by the human body'. A specific gene, which contributes to the human body's rejection of pig organs, has been knocked out.

This follows previous research conducted in 1992 in which pigs were genetically engineered to achieve essentially the same result. In terms of progress, the xenotransplantation industry is no further forward than it was ten years ago.

Dolly the sheep who was cloned in 1996 has sparked a row after she was diagnosed as having premature arthritis. Dolly was the only successful birth out of 277 embryos created by nuclear transfer, the same process by which the litter of piglets were produced.

There have already been a huge number of miscarriages and deformities during cloning experiments on animals:

• Cloning from adult cells may result in animals with shorter life spans and increased susceptibility to cancers.

• A cloned calf developed heart problems, and then suffered a dramatic fall in its red blood cells, resulting in death at only seven weeks of age.

• Animals are made to made to lactate early and continuously with hormone treatments causing mastitis, lameness, general malaise and exhaustion.

• Dan Lyons of Uncaged Campaigns states:

"Our research has revealed that xenotransplantation experiments involving monkeys and the cloning of animals involve immense cruelty. In addition, there are some very serious diseases that can be passed from pigs to humans. Primate research into this area has not worked in the past - there is no reason to think that this process is any further forward. We are considering complaining to regulators regarding the exaggerated claims that are designed to entice investment into the firm".

For further information and interviews, please contact Dan Lyons on 07799 117694.