--- title: CRISPR Scientists Created Low-Fat Pigs by Editing Their Genes description: Genetically editing pig genomes may make them better able to tolerate cold and produce lower fat bacon and pork canonical: https://time.com/4995237/crispr-gene-editing-pigs-fat/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-24T19:02:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:58:56.958Z article:section: Health og:title: Scientists Created Low-Fat Pigs by Editing Their Genes With CRISPR og:description: Genetically editing pig genomes may make them able to produce lower fat bacon og:url: https://time.com/4995237/crispr-gene-editing-pigs-fat/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd025f367386d9c3d/6988e334bc6cfc113d3e3ac9/pigs.jpg?branch=production&width=382&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 382 og:image:height: 215 og:image:alt: pigs og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Created Low-Fat Pigs by Editing Their Genes With CRISPR twitter:description: Genetically editing pig genomes may make them able to produce lower fat bacon twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd025f367386d9c3d/6988e334bc6cfc113d3e3ac9/pigs.jpg?branch=production&width=382&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Created Low-Fat Pigs by Editing Their Genes With CRISPR > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 24, 2017 7:02 PM UTC  Courtesy of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 24, 2017 7:02 PM UTC Raising pigs for food is a tricky business—mostly because of their fat, the part that makes bacon so tasty. You can’t plump them up too much, because overly fat pigs are more expensive to raise. Since they’re not as efficient at burning body fat, they require more energy—in the form of heated pens and barns—to keep them warm. Yet too-skinny pigs aren’t able to regulate their body temperature properly and tend to die when temperatures drop. Farmers have to find a way to keep their pigs healthy but plump enough to produce meat. Now, in a [paper published in _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences_](http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1707853114), researchers in China report that they have created healthy pigs with much less body fat. Using the [gene editing tool CRISPR](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-crispr-runner-up/), which can precisely edit DNA, the scientists inserted a gene that helps pigs to burn fat to stay warm. It turns out that pigs don’t have this gene, which other mammals, including mice and rats, use to regulate their body temperature. **MORE:** [Scientists are Getting Closer To Using Pig Organs For Human Transplants](http://time.com/4896026/pig-organs-humans-crispr-genome-editing/) The Chinese research team inserted a mouse version of the gene into embryonic pig cells, then coaxed those cells to generate more than 2,000 pig embryo clones that were genetically identical to each other. Female pig surrogates gestated the embryos, and 12 male piglets were born with the new gene. The genetically modified pigs contained about 24% less body fat than pigs without the gene. The animals were bred for their meat, but it’s not clear yet whether the genetic change affected the taste or quality of the pork they produced. Autopsy of the animals at six months showed that their organs and tissues seemed to be normal. If the results are replicated, the pigs may represent new agricultural potential: leaner pigs that don’t get cold, don’t cost as much to raise and make potentially healthier, lower-fat bacon. But don’t expect these pigs to fly in the U.S. anytime soon. Because they are genetically modified, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would have to approve them after being reassured that the meat they produce is safe to eat. The safety of CRISPR hasn’t been completely proven yet, either; some researchers point out that as precise as CRISPR is, it’s still not perfect. There’s always a chance that CRISPR could introduce some other unintended changes in the DNA that might have negative consequences. For now, however, the pigs are proof that it’s possible to make lower fat pork. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4995237/crispr-gene-editing-pigs-fat/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4995237/crispr-gene-editing-pigs-fat/"},"headline":"Scientists Created Low-Fat Pigs by Editing Their Genes With CRISPR","datePublished":"2017-10-24T19:02:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:58:56.958Z","description":"Genetically editing pig genomes makes them better able to tolerate cold, which could save farmers millions","url":"https://time.com/4995237/crispr-gene-editing-pigs-fat/","keywords":["Genetics","GMO","crispr","gene editing","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd025f367386d9c3d/6988e334bc6cfc113d3e3ac9/pigs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd025f367386d9c3d/6988e334bc6cfc113d3e3ac9/pigs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"pigs","caption":"pigs","creditText":"Courtesy of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/genetics/","name":"Genetics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4995237/crispr-gene-editing-pigs-fat/","name":"Scientists Created Low-Fat Pigs by Editing Their Genes With CRISPR"}}]}] ```