If a new kind of pork makes it to the dinner table, healthful eaters worried about fat and heart disease might finally be free to, well, pig out.
Scientists using genetic engineering techniques have produced pigs rich in omega-3 fatty acids -- a kind of healthful fat abundant in fish but not naturally found in meat.
The omega-3 fatty acids are believed to offer some protection against heart attacks, and federal nutrition guidelines recommend adults include them in their daily diets.
But "some people are not going to eat fish no matter what," said Penny Kris-Etherton, a professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the research. "This is a way people who don't like fish can benefit."
There is one little question looming over the potential feast of greasy bacon, succulent chorizo and juicy Chinese pork stew. Because the research is in its early stages, no one has yet sampled the pigs to see if they taste like pork.
Harvard University's Jing Kang, one of the scientists involved in the experiment, is confident the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the new pigs aren't high enough to ruin the flavor.
"There should be no difference," he said, adding that, as far as he could tell, the pigs "don't smell fishy."
The team of scientists from Harvard, the University of Missouri and the University of Pittsburgh used a gene from an earthworm, which naturally produces omega-3 fatty acids, to genetically modify their pigs.
The researchers began by harvesting more than 1,600 eggs from female pigs. They removed the genetic material from the eggs and replaced it with new DNA that had the earthworm gene inserted.
The manipulated embryos were then implanted into 14 surrogate mothers. A total of 10 male piglets were born.
DNA analysis of the piglets showed that six had the earthworm gene, according to the study published online Sunday in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Kang said the cloned pigs produced one-fifth the amount of omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon, considered the best source. But he said successive generations bred the old-fashioned way probably would produce higher amounts of omega-3.
Now, the pigs have one copy of the earthworm gene, but through selective breeding their progeny could acquire two.
"I am confident we can go much higher," said Kang, whose research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society.
