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Oct. 26, 1999
Will semen spurting out of a hog's penis provide the next wonder drug for humanity?
Lusty sows might regard swine spunk as sexy, and Nebraska pig-ranchers accept it as a procreating necessity, but ordinary humans undoubtedly view oinker jism as a repulsive fluid they'd rather not think about.
Pig sperm doesn't bore Canadian researchers, however. Frances Pothier and his Department of Animal Sciences colleagues at Quebec's Laval University are presently attempting to transform hog wads into an array of growth hormone (GH) pharmaceutical products, notes the November issue of Nature Biotechnology.
"We will introduce a new human gene into the pig embryo at the one-cell stage, with micro-manipulation," Pothier explained to Salon Urge in a phone interview. "We can introduce any genes that we want: genes that combat hemophilia, genetic lung disease and cystic fibrosis, for example. We can also introduce genes that act as 'red blood cell boosters' -- this product will help patients recover from chemotherapy."
Geneticists are already producing pharmaceutical proteins in the mammary glands of goats, sheep and cows, but Pothier believes pig testicles provide a cheaper, faster medical factory. "The gestation period of the pig is only three months, three weeks and three days," he said. "And in six months, the pig starts ejaculating. In one year [with a pig] you will have the product; with a cow you have to wait two and a half years."
Hogs, moreover, are prolific splashers: they expel about a cup of sperm with each ejaculation. Harvesting piggy ooze is also simple. "Pigs can be trained to mount a special bench every day, and ejaculate inside it," said Pothier. "The process takes only 10 to 20 minutes."
Future patients who fear they might receive prescriptions that require them to swallow spoonfuls of hog semen daily need not worry. The boar-juice, Pothier assures us, "will be purified in very complex procedures."
