rbST from GM cows
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Bovine somatotropin, also known as rbST, has long been popular with dairy farmers because it makes milk production far more efficient. It became widely available at a reasonable price when it was discovered that it could be produced using the same technology that yields insulin for diabetics. Now, Argentine scientists have discovered a process which could make rbST production even cheaper -- a process using GM cows.

Karina Grazina and Helen Popper of Reuters quote Andres Bercovich, head of research and development at biotechnology firm Bio Sidus as saying, "It's going to be a cheaper method because it requires far less equipment and the only costs are what the animal needs."

The rbST would be present in the cow's milk, and extracted the same way Bio Sidus extracts human growth hormone and insulin from other types of its GM cows.

Bio Sidus aims to export the dairy hormone technology to the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Peru, but no date has yet been set and the company's cloned bovine hormone technology has not been approved for sale in Argentina.

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