Pig to human transplants Alternatively, he said, the technology could be used to make animal models of human illnesses on which new treatments could be tested. This is often done in mice but the rodents do not always mimic diseases and symptoms accurately, Dr Coleman said. Sheep might be a much better model. Dr Coleman said the scientists also hoped to produce selectively modified pig clones within the next year. PPL Therapeutics announced in February that it had succeeded in creating five pig clones - a much harder task than producing sheep.
Pigs have a gene which triggers a severe rejection response when their tissue is put in humans.