Argentina's gene-edited horses

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Polo is already known for its “frenetic pace” but in Argentina the sport is about to become “even quicker”, said The Times.

Scientists in the polo-obsessed nation have produced the world’s first genetically edited horses, modifying DNA from a champion mare using a technique called Crispr to increase “explosive speed” in her offspring, said the paper.

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A multimillion-dollar gamble

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‘What nature does, but faster’

But Kheiron, the biotech firm responsible for the five genetically edited foals in Argentina, argues that the new horses’ genes could have theoretically occurred naturally, through selective breeding or genetic mutations. That’s what distinguishes Crispr from genetic modification, which introduces DNA from one species into another. This means the horses “comply with current Argentine regulations”, said Reuters, because they do not count as “genetic doping or genetically modified organisms“.

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