Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Biotech, cloning and de-extinction · United Kingdom · 1987–2004

PPL Therapeutics collapse and transgenic sheep cull (Scotland, New Zealand)

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
What the record lacks: 4 none on record · 6 insufficient · 1 not measured See the gaps

PPL Therapeutics, the company created to commercialise the research behind Dolly the sheep, laid off about 90% of its staff in July 2003 and began culling a New Zealand flock of about 4,000 transgenic sheep.

about 4,000Transgenic sheep in the New Zealand flock when the cull began (July 2003)
Reported by LabOnline; later reports give 3,500 culled (not independently verified).

Status Cull of the New Zealand flock reported from July 2003; the sources reviewed record no later proceedings.

What?
PPL Therapeutics dismissed about 90% of its staff and began culling its flock of about 4,000 transgenic sheep in New Zealand. LabOnline
Where?
Scotland (Roslin Institute; PPL Therapeutics) and New Zealand (the flock). Wikipedia
When?
Dolly was born in 1996; the dismissals and cull began in July 2003. LabOnline
Who?
Gained
None on record
Lost
  • PPL Therapeutics employees — About 90% dismissed, July 2003. LabOnline
Harmed
  • The transgenic sheep of the New Zealand flock — About 4,000 sheep, culling began July 2003. LabOnline
Why?
The sources reviewed describe the cull as following the failure of PPL's commercial plan; the Bayer withdrawal and plant cancellation reported as the cause are not independently verified.
How?
PPL dismissed staff and began culling the New Zealand flock; a 2004 report says the regulator ERMA required the biological material to be cut up and burned (not independently verified). LabOnline
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

Dolly the sheep was born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland on 5 July 1996, produced from an adult sheep's mammary gland cell. She was the only lamb to reach adulthood from 277 attempts. Funding came from the UK Ministry of Agriculture (MAFF) and from PPL Therapeutics, according to Wikipedia.

PPL Therapeutics was reported to have been set up by Roslin in 1987 to commercialise its research. The commercial aim reported was to produce human therapeutic proteins in the milk of cloned transgenic animals. This and the later steps below are reported but not independently verified in the material reviewed.

In July 2003, according to LabOnline, PPL dismissed about 90% of its staff and began culling a flock of about 4,000 transgenic sheep in New Zealand.

Dolly was euthanised on 14 February 2003 at the age of six and a half, because of progressive lung disease and severe arthritis. Roslin said the illness was not related to her being a clone and that other sheep in the flock had died of the same lung disease.

  1. 1987Roslin reported to have set up PPL Therapeutics to commercialise its research (not independently verified)
  2. 1996Dolly born, 5 July, at the Roslin Institute; the only lamb to reach adulthood from 277 attempts
  3. 2003Dolly euthanised, 14 February; PPL dismisses about 90% of staff and begins culling the New Zealand flock, July
  4. 2004A report of February 2004 gives 3,500 transgenic sheep culled in New Zealand (not independently verified)

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

    Recorded

    • Dolly was born on 5 July 1996 from an adult mammary gland cell and was the only lamb to reach adulthood from 277 attempts.
      Wikipedia
    • Funding for Dolly came from the UK Ministry of Agriculture (MAFF) and PPL Therapeutics.
      Wikipedia
    • In July 2003 PPL dismissed about 90% of its staff and began culling about 4,000 transgenic sheep in New Zealand.
      LabOnline

    Who gained

    Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

    Reached nature or the ground

    Not published
    No figure published.

    Gained elsewhere

    Not totalled
    Currency: GBP · Window: . All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

    Responses on record

    • Roslin Institute (2003): Said Dolly's illness was unrelated to her being a clone and that other sheep in the flock died of the same lung disease.

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What nature saw

    Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

    Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

    Transgenic sheep culled, New Zealand
    about 4,000
    Cull began July 2003 (LabOnline). A February 2004 report gives 3,500; a further report gives 6,500 for Scotland and New Zealand combined. Not independently verified.

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
    No court caseNo independent ecological evaluationUnder standard-setter review

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: No independent ecological evaluation is on record.

    Court

    Figures

    • Insufficient Sheep culled reported: New Zealand, February 2004 report. Not independently verified.

    Record

    • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: PPL entered an alpha-1 antitrypsin partnership with Bayer in August 2000; in April 2003 PPL cancelled a 42 million pound production plant and wrote off 7.5 million pounds; Bayer withdrew in June 2003 (Outsourcing-Pharma, 20 June 2003).
    • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: in February 2004 the New Zealand regulator ERMA required all biological material from the project to be cut up and burned, and 3,500 transgenic sheep were culled (LabOnline, February 2004).
    • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: a July 2003 report gives a herd of 6,500 sheep across Scotland and New Zealand, and a 40 million US dollar collaboration with Bayer (BioWorld / Outsourcing-Pharma, 16 July 2003). The 3,500–4,000 figure applies to the New Zealand flock only.
    • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: in 1997 Roslin gave PPL an exclusive licence to the nuclear transfer technique for producing therapeutic proteins in animal milk; Polly, born in 1997, was a cloned transgenic sheep carrying the human factor IX gene.
    • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: PPL's US arm became Revivicor in 2003 and was bought by United Therapeutics in 2011.
    • None on record The total cost of the Dolly project, and the amount by which the ministry cut Roslin's funding, are not on record in the sources reviewed.
    • None on record The sources reviewed do not report that a drug produced in milk by PPL's animals reached the market.
    • None on record No source reviewed reports an independent assessment of the animal welfare or environmental aspects of the cull.

    Did the harm stop?

    The sources reviewed give the cull as beginning in July 2003; they do not record a later stop or a count of sheep culled beyond the figures above.

    Who paid?

    The sources reviewed do not say who bore the cost of the cull. Reported losses include a 7.5 million pound write-off by PPL (not independently verified).

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers

    Press and investigations

    1. Dolly (sheep)
      Wikipedia ·
    2. Clone sheep company to cull
      LabOnline · 2003-07
    4. PPL hits the rocks as Bayer jumps ship
      Outsourcing-Pharma · 2003-06-20
    5. Sheep cull follows staff cuts at PPL
      BioWorld / Outsourcing-Pharma · 2003-07-16

    Communities and civil society

    Connected cases

    Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
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