Most pigs in the US are confined to factory farms where they can be afflicted by a nasty respiratory virus that kills piglets. The illness is called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, or PRRS.

A few years ago, a British company called Genus set out to design pigs immune to this germ using CRISPR gene editing. Not only did they succeed, but its pigs are now poised to enter the food chain following approval of the animals [last] week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The pigs will join a very short list of gene-modified animals that you can eat. It’s a short list because such animals are expensive to create, face regulatory barriers, and don’t always pay off.

But there is still a way to go before gene-edited bacon appears on shelves in the US…. [Matt] Culbertson says gene-edited pork could appear in the US market sometime next year.

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