1) Transgenic frogs by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 2) Spuds with cholera vaccine tested in mice by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 3) Korean zoo tiger shot dead by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 4) Correcting a posting by Daniel Paulo Ferreira <dmartins@alumni.dee.uc.pt> 5) (US) Attack on Veggie Libel Planned by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 6) (US) Cattlemen To Appeal Verdict by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 7) (US) Longer Sentences For Pet-Napping? by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 8) (US) Chronology of Oprah-Cattlemen Case by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 9) CNN: Free Speech Rocks for Oprah. by Wyandotte Animal Group <wag@heritage.com> 10) Animal Victory Anniversary by SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US 11) Fur Trade Wolf Kill by MINKLIB <MINKLIB@aol.com> 12) Dallas - EXXON ENDS BIRD BURNINGS by Greg Thomisee <Greg_Thomisee@compuserve.com> 13) (US) Scientists create genetically engineered frog by Mesia Quartano <primates@usa.net> 14) Iowa legislation by "Vicki Sharer" <Vicki.Sharer@wku.edu> 15) More on The Grammies by David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com> 16) VICTORY! Exxon Stops Burning Birds Alive by Tereiman <Tereiman@aol.com> 17) Press Release: Wildlife Advocates Protest Government Hit Squad by Michael Markarian <mmarkarian@fund.org> 18) (US) Oklahoma City Weekend Hunting Show by JanaWilson <JanaWilson@aol.com> 19) <US> Land O'Lorin Lives On by Debbie Leahy <DLEAHY@delphi.com> 20) Update on Navy-Humpback Whale Tests by Patrick Nolan <pnolan@animalwelfare.com> 21) What Next for Meat Industry? by Lionel Friedberg <lionel333@loop.com> 22) [MD] Eleven rescued chicks need a home! by Jeanie Freeman <jeanie@clark.net> 23) Press Release: It's a No-Birthday Party (Houston, TX) by Michael Markarian <mmarkarian@fund.org> 24) [Fwd: HSUS Program Director Howard Lyman NOT GUILTY] by FARM <farm@farmusa.org> 25) Re: Fur Trade Wolf Kill by Friends of Animals <foa@igc.apc.org> 26) News Briefing to Announce Action Against Trap Company by MINKLIB <MINKLIB@aol.com> 27) Ye-hhaaaa! Endangered Species Gets New WISCONSIN Co-Sponsor! by LexAnima <LexAnima@aol.com> 28) URGENT Letters needed - Get fur out of hospital fashion show by Tereiman <Tereiman@aol.com> 29) OCEANS WITHOUT FISH by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 30) Upcoming Hard Copy animal stories by "Eric Mindel @ LCA" <eric@lcanimal.org> 31) re SLAUGHTERHOUSE by Animal Rights Hawaii <arh@pixi.com> 32) [US] "First Lady Will Make Appeal For Monkey Donations" (TCT-022698) by Steve Barney <AnimalLib@vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu> 33) URGENT: HOW TO HELP THE MONKEYS by Steve Barney <AnimalLib@vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu> 34) (CN) Snake, worm, marmot: you choose by jwed <jwed@hkstar.com> 35) HSUS Full Page Ad in 2/27/98 NY Times Decries States' Food Disparagement Laws by Vegetarian Resource Center <vrc@tiac.net> 36) [CA] "Fur-wearers" caged by David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 22:04:42 -0800
From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Transgenic frogs
Message-ID: <34F6577A.4B65@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Genetic engineers conquer the frog
Reuters News Service
WASHINGTON, February 26, 1998
Genetic engineering works in sheep, rabbits and mice, but scientists
have so far been unable to get it to work in frogs -- until now,
California researchers reported Thursday. A team at the University of
California in San Diego said they had found a way to introduce foreign
genes into a frog, at least temporarily.
Reporting in the journal Nature Biotechnology, they said they had
managed to introduce genes into African clawed toads for a fluorescent
protein normally produced by jellyfish.
"This technique is not what we call a stable transgenic. Right now we
don't know that the DNA is actually integrated into the chromosome," Dr.
Sylvia Evans, a specialist in heart development, said in a telephone
interview.
The approach was more like gene therapy, in which a gene is temporarily
introduced into cells but does not become a permanent part of an
animal's genes.
But it will allow scientists to produce transgenic frogs -- frogs that
carry working genes from other species -- for experimental work.
"The frog is the choice system for developmental biology," Evans said.
"The frog has a relatively large embryo that develops outside the body.
You can do all sorts of cut and paste experiments -- you can cut out
bits of the embryo and see what develops," she added.
Also, frogs are cheaper and easier to work with than mice. "Say you
wanted to study a protein's potential for a drug. You could then use
this method as the initial screening," Evans said.
She said no one really knew why frogs, which are relatively simple
animals, defy genetic engineering. Transgenic mice, sheep and cows bred
to carry human genes produce human proteins for companies such as
Scotland's PPL Therapeutics, which has created cloned and transgenic
animals like Dolly the cloned sheep and Polly, a transgenic clone.
Evans thinks the new method might work in other animals as well, such as
zebra fish.
By Maggie Fox, Reuters Health and Science Correspondent
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 22:05:45 -0800
From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Spuds with cholera vaccine tested in mice
Message-ID: <34F657B9.7122@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Need a vaccination? Eat some french fries
Reuters News Service
WASHINGTON, February 26, 1998
U.S. researchers said Thursday they had genetically engineered potatoes
to carry a vaccine against cholera.
Unlike earlier attempts to get potatoes to produce vaccines, this one
lasts even if the potato is cooked -- creating the possibility that
people could get their inoculations from a plate of french fries.
William Langridge of Loma Linda University in California and colleagues
genetically engineered their potatoes to produce nontoxic cholera toxin
B (CTB), a protein that sparks an immune response in mice and humans.
The resulting potatoes are transgenic -- containing both potato and
foreign genes.
"Humans, unlike mice, eat only cooked potatoes," they wrote in a report
in the journal Nature Biotechnology. So they boiled their transgenic
potatoes.
"After cooking the transgenic potato tubers in boiling water until the
tissue became soft, we were able to detect approximately 50 percent of
CTB (in the effective form)."
They have only tested mice so far, but the approach worked fairly well.
"Potato tissues were orally administered to mice four times at weekly
intervals for a month with a final booster feeding," they wrote. They
then measured antibodies to cholera in both the blood and the feces from
the mice.
They also checked for evidence of diarrhea. Mice that had been immunized
had less fluid in their guts.
They said a "booster" dose also seemed to work as the effects of the
immunization wore off. "Thus, food plants grown in tropical and
semitropical regions of the world can provide a continuous source of
oral vaccine for the consequent booster dose," they wrote.
This offered a "low-cost, convenient, effective and safe strategy for
prevention of infectious enteric (intestinal) diseases as well as
autoimmune diseases in animals and in man, especially in regions of the
economically emerging world where conventional vaccines are unaffordable
as well as unavailable".
Five million people get cholera every year and 200,000 die from it.
Cholera, which comes from bacteria-infected water, causes severe
diarrhea and dehydration.
By Maggie Fox, Reuters Health and Science Correspondent
