BEIJING — A cloned pig whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of pigs for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported. The glowing piglets’ birth proves transgenic pigs are fertile and able to pass on their engineered traits to their offspring, according to Liu Zhonghua, a professor overseeing the breeding program at Northeast Agricultural University. ‘Continued development of this technology can be applied to … the production of special pigs for the production of human organs for transplant,’ Liu said in a news release posted Tuesday on the university’s Web site. Calls to the university seeking comment Wednesday were not answered. The piglets’ mother was one of three pigs born with the trait in December 2006 after pig embryos were injected with fluorescent green protein. Two of the 11 piglets glow fluorescent green from their snout, trotters, and tongue under ultraviolet light, the university said. Robin Lovell-Badge, a genetics expert at Britain’s National Institute for Medical Research, said the technology ‘to genetically manipulate pigs in this way would be very valuable.’ Lovell-Badge had […]