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Agriculture, human medicine can stand together in gene editing narrative

Gene editing can contribute to animal wellbeing by more quickly getting pigs resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. Emily Metz, with the animal genetics company Genus, compares getting a PRRS resistant pig to getting five cherries on a slot machine.

“Gene editing allows us to stack the deck, it allows us the get five cherries and hit the jackpot that much faster,” Metz told the audience at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture Conference in Kansas City. “We were going to get there anyway; we just might have had to spin a couple thousand times. Gene editing allows us to spin four to five [times].”

Gene editing’s human disease application has resulted in positive media coverage about gene editing, according to Metz, who said the average consumer has yet to hear much about the science.

“That is an opportunity, it’s an opportunity for companies like Genus,” she said, “it’s also an opportunity for agriculture to stand together and decide what the narrative is that we want to tell, decide how we want to engage on this.”

The gene editing story needs to be shared with the broader public, said Metz, that the technology can advance animal wellbeing through innovation.