The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved new genetically modified (GM) pigs for human consumption.

Researchers engineered the GM pigs to resist Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), a viral disease that costs the U.S. pork industry US$1.2 billion annually from 2016 to 2020 ….

To combat PRRS, United Kingdom-based animal genetics company Genus partnered with researchers at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute. Using the gene-editing tool CRISPR, the team removed a gene that enables the PRRS virus to infect pigs.

Only a few GM animals— including salmon modified to reach maturity more quickly and pigs less likely to induce an allergic reaction—have been approved for food in the U.S.

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FDA approval marks a milestone [for] the gene-edited pigs. But Pig Improvement Company (PIC), a subsidiary of Genus, says that they will not reach the market until 2026 at the earliest, once they have gained regulatory approvals in at least Mexico, Canada, and Japan.

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