Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
BioArtists at the University of Western Australia drew attention to
the possibilities of
in vtiro
meat with an installation called
'Semi-Living Food: “Disembodied Cuisine”' in 2003 (
http://www.tca.
uwa.edu.au/disembodied/dis.html
). The installation incorporated a
bioreactor where the tissue-cultured products were grown, an
aquarium featuring living animals from which the tissues were
cultivated, and a table set for dinner, where the artists sat down to eat
their
in vitro
grown steaks as part of the performance. Like the
incentive offered by PETA, one of the key issues for these artists is that
in vitro
meat allows the possibility of a 'victimless' meat product.
Other commentators have further suggested that '[w]ith cultured
meat, the ratio of saturated to polyunsaturated fatty acids could be
better controlled; the incidence of foodborne disease could be
significantly reduced; and resources could be used more efficiently, as
biological structures required for locomotion and reproduction would
not have to be grown or supported' (Edleman et al., 2005: 661). While
in vitro
meat is still a long way away from the supermarket shelves,
debate about the viability of tissue-cultured meat is proliferating.
2.4.2 Veterinaryapplicationsofstemcelltherapies
Like the cattle-breeding industry, horse racing relies on the circulation
of good stock for the production of high-quality horses. Each
racehorse has a significant amount of time and effort invested in it
as an individual in the attempt to create a winner. Successful horses
are thus highly valued property. While cloning of racehorses is offered
in the US (
http://www.viagen.com
), one of the less well-known
details about the emergence of the global stem cell industries is that
the horse-racing industry has so far been one of the earliest markets
for emerging stem cell technologies. The ease of application for use
in animals in comparison to humans, the high-value nature of the
horse-racing industry and the intensity of the care afforded any
individual racehorse means that they are ideally positioned to be
among the first recipients of emerging stem cell therapies.
There have been documented applications of stem cell treatments
used on racehorses in Australia, the UK and the US. The Randwick
Equine Centre in Sydney offers a range of services, focusing on the
