First Cloned Piglets

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

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The U.S. Staff of PPL Therapeutics, Scotland, cloned five healthy female piglets, born on March 5, 2000, in Blacksburg, Virginia. This is the first time cloned pigs have been produced from adult pig cells.

Hope for Organ Transplant Recipients

Their birth marks the first step in making genetically modified pigs whose organs and cells can be successfully transplanted into humans without being rejected by the human immune system. The process of xenotransplantation (the transfer of organs from one species to another) may one day solve the worldwide organ shortage problem.