Patent ID: 8088969

Claim:
A method of breeding a herd of pigs that are free of infectious microorganisms and have a PERV copy number per cell from 1 to 30 and (i) are of blood group O; or (ii) are lacking PERV-C; or (iii) are of blood group O and are lacking PERV-C, said method comprising the steps: (a) selecting male and female Auckland Island swine having a favorable microorganism profile, (b) mating male and female swine selected in step (a), (c) selecting progeny produced by step (b) that have a favorable microorganism profile and a PERV copy number per cell from 1 to 30 and (i) are of blood group O; or (ii) are lacking PERV-C; or (iii) are of blood group O and are lacking PERV-C, wherein the favorable microorganism profile comprises no detectable levels of herpesvirus, porcine lymphotrophic herpesvirus (PLHV), pig cytomegalovirus (PCMV), encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV), pig circovirus (PCV), hepatitis E virus (HEV), Toxoplasma, eperythrozoon, brucella, listeria, mycobacterium TB, leptospirillum, haemophilus suis, any virus causing porcine respiratory reproductive syndrome, any virus causing rabies, any virus causing pseudorabies, parvovirus, any virus causing swine vesicular disease, porcine polio virus (techen), any virus causing hemagglutinating encephalomyocarditis, swine influenza type A, adenovirus, transmissible gastroenteritis virus and vesicular stomatitis virus, a hard return thereby providing a herd of pigs that are free of infectious microorganisms and have a PERV copy number per cell from 1 to 30 and (i) are of blood group O; or (ii) are lacking PERV-C; or (iii) are of blood group O and are lacking PERV-C, whereby the progeny selected in step (c) are suitable for use as a donor source of cells or tissue for xenotransplantation.