Taiwanese researchers have announced the world’s first 100% glow-in-the-dark pigs.

Green fluorescent protein, GFP to its friends and intimates, has been used to make transgenic animals for sometime – glowing mice have been with us since 1999.  Indeed, fluorescent beasties of the porcine persuasion aren’t a first, but what’s unique about these three little pigs is that they glow green from the inside out – even their internal organs glimmer.  Previous piggies have been patchy in their luminescence.

So, I hear you cry, what can fluorescing cloven-hoofed animals do for humans?  Well quite a lot as it so happens; they can be used to study animal models of human diseases.  Injecting stem cells from one animal into another and then examining where those cells end up, how they affect the receiver’s physiology, and if they address the receiver’s symptoms is fairly common research.  The fact that these cells glow under UV light means that the cells’ migration can be tracked without biopsies, or euthanizing the animal to obtain sections of tissue for examination with traditional methods such as histochemistry.

This is also a benefit for the pigs and other animals involved – non-invasive tracking of the cells means that the animals are poked, prodded and operated on less, leaving them to enjoy their lives in greater peace and tranquility.

Invasive techniques aren’t even required to get more disco pigs: the researchers hope that the old fashioned (but tried and tested) method of baby-making will result in the next generation… although shy pigs bemoan the lack of ‘light on/lights off’ choice.