Report of ET (fertilized egg transfer) Wagyu promotion study group
Many people probably have never heard of “ET Wagyu”. On February 25, 2001, the above study group was organized by the Kobe Municipal Industrial Promotion Bureau to promote and promote the spread of "ET Wagyu" and to promote exchanges with producers, meat distributors and consumers. It was held in. From Tatsuya, the owner Tacchan and Noza also participated.
1. Seminar (10:00-11:00)
An explanation of the fertilized egg transfer project was held in the large conference room of the Kobe City Agricultural Park, where the Kobe Wine Castle is located.
2. Local explanation (11:00-12:15)
I went to "Kobe Ikusei Ranch" near the agricultural park and "Kobe Beef Museum" in the agricultural park.
It's a calf. Friendly and cute.
large pasture. I could see the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge over there, but unfortunately it was a little cloudy and I couldn't take a picture.
The adult cow (right) was also friendly. Of course, ET Wagyu beef is the same as regular beef.
3. Tasting party (12:20-14:30)
A tasting party of ET Wagyu beef was held at the barbecue area in the agricultural park. The head in the foreground in the photo on the right is Tacchan^^.
What is ET Wagyu beef?
ET is an abbreviation for "Embryo Transfer".
The process of fertilization and implantation, which is normally carried out inside the body of the mother cow, is only partly carried out with the help of humans. Fertilized eggs are not cloned cattle because they are not subjected to any manipulations such as gene introduction or recombination.
Like humans, cows are singleton animals (usually only one fetus can become pregnant at a time), and because the gestation period lasts about 290 days, cows usually give birth to only one calf per year. However, if you produce fertilized eggs from a breeding bull and a cow with excellent qualities and transplant them to several cows, you can get many calves that have inherited excellent qualities. This is the fertilized egg transfer technology, which we use to produce high-quality livestock products.
In 1987, Kobe City started a project to transplant Japanese Black fertilized eggs , which is rare among local governments in Japan.
How to make in vitro fertilized eggs
For in vitro fertilized eggs, we use eggs extracted from the ovaries of Japanese black cows (mother cows) that have good meat quality at the Meat Center, and semen from excellent breeding bulls in the prefecture. Fertilized eggs cultured outside the body are transplanted into the body of a surrogate cow 6 to 7 days after fertilization. This method has the advantage of being able to directly see the meat quality of the calf and to be able to produce large amounts of fertilized eggs at low cost.
Conclusion
It's called a virtual pregnancy . There are pros and cons to human virtual pregnancy even in Japan. In the case of cattle, is it the pursuit of human food?
This business has just started, and ET Wagyu beef is not yet popular, but if more and more high-quality Kobe beef is produced in the future, we will be able to deliver delicious Kobe beef at a low price. They might come.
