:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/77K22Q2YTZETFDUS737B2R45AM.jpg)
A group of Chinese researchers, belonging to the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence at Nankai University in Tianjin, carried out for the first time a process of cloning pigs solely with the participation of robots.
This milestone took place on March 7, when a surrogate mother gave birth to seven cloned offspring on the faculty’s premises, the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported. Each step in this process was carried out in an automated way by robots and without any human interference.said Liu Yaowei, one of the members of the research team that achieved the feat.
Liu added that the use of robots also increased the success rate of cloning, because they were less likely to damage cells while performing the intricate cloning process. This problem, according to scientists, has slowed the technique’s wider use.
LOOK: Will New York have the first floating building in the world?
This process, in case of continued success, it will be able to alleviate the intense physical and time burdens that the traditional method of cloning requires on scientists, much more manual, confirmed Pan Dengke, a former researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The expert helped create the first cloned pig of China in 2005.
Pan points out that he made more than 1,000 clones a day by hand, in a task so complicated and tiring that it led him to develop severe back problems, something that this innovation aims to avoid. The robotic cloning technique developed by this team of scientists began its process in 2017, but at that time it still required some kind of human participation.
Since its inception five years ago, the success rate in cloning with robots went from 21% to the current 27.5%, instead of the 10% achieved by the more manual process. The advances are expected to make the supply of high-quality pork more widely available in China, the world’s largest consumer of pork.
LOOK: We tested Google’s artificial intelligence that trains you for job interviews and this is our verdict
Researcher Liu believes that it can help the country become self-sufficient amid fears of vulnerability to import restrictions from the United States and other Western countries. Thus, China In 2019, it launched a plan to develop the country’s pig sector and achieve the goal of producing 95% of the pig it consumes at the national level within a maximum period of ten years, something that this technique could help contribute to.
The Asian giant decided to raise more pigs after overcoming the toughest episode of the African swine fever crisis, reducing its imports by 2% in 2021 and generating a panorama of international trade uncertainty.
Source: Elcomercio
I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years and have written for various news outlets. I currently work as an author at 24 News Recorder, mostly covering entertainment news. I have a keen interest in the industry and enjoy writing about the latest news and gossip. I am also a member of the National Association of Journalists.
