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By KIA SHANT'E BREAUX, Associated Press Writer

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - The company that cloned Dolly the sheep has produced the first cloned pigs, five little piggies named Millie, Christa, Alexis, Carrel and Dotcom that raise hopes for a new source of transplants for humans.

"I think this is a big step forward they've made. I applaud it," said Dr. Fritz Bach of Harvard Medical School, who studies genetic and immunological aspects of transplants from animals to people and was not involved in the cloning.

The piglets, delivered by Caesarean section March 5 at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, were produced by a subsidiary of PPL Therapeutics of Edinburgh, Scotland, which nearly four years ago created Dolly, the world's first clone of an adult mammal.

"The birth of these pigs is a very significant
accomplishment," Dave Ayares, PPL's vice president of research, said at a news conference Tuesday. "It has the potential to essentially revolutionize the transplantation field."

The five female pigs were cloned from an adult sow named Destiny using a slightly different technique than the one that produced Dolly.

Independent tests of the DNA of the piglets confirmed they were clones of the sow, the company said.

The identical baby pigs playfully wrestled and nibbled on each other's ears inside a wooden pen at the news conference. Their mother was not present.

PPL touted the clones as a major step toward achieving its xenograft objectives, which would create genetically altered pigs whose organs and cells could be successfully transplanted in humans. Pigs are physiologically one of the closest animals to humans.

Imutran, a Cambridge, England-based company pursuing similar research, called PPL's announcement "interesting news."

"It is potentially a useful technology to develop new lines of pigs for (transplant)," the company said. "However, the next step is to see if the technology can be applied to developing genetically modified animals whose organs can be transplanted into humans without being rejected."

The idea of using animal organs for transplant, known as xenotransplantation, is controversial because some believe illnesses could cross from pigs to humans.

PPL scientists plan to try to eliminate a gene responsible for incorporating in pig cells a sugar group recognized by the human immune system as foreign. The gene triggers an immune response in the human body, prompting it to reject the organ.

PPL said transplantation of genetically altered pig organs could be tested on humans in four years and that analysts believe the market for them could be worth $6 billion for solid organs alone. Other uses include cellular therapies such as transplantable cells that produce insulin for treatment of diabetes.

"We hope in the very near-term to overcome the shortage of human organs," said Ayares, who noted ultrasounds performed Tuesday confirmed additional pig cloning pregnancies at the company's farm in Blacksburg.

The only connection the births have to the veterinary school at Virginia Tech is that the university provided the clinical services for the delivery. All of the research was conducted and funded by PPL.

Despite the potential solution for organ shortages, the pig cloning drew criticism from animal rights activists.

"There's always a reason given to validate these
Frankenstein-like experiments," said Lisa Lange, a spokeswoman for Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Animals are not test tubes with tails and they are not commodities to be marketed."

Ayares countered that pigs for years have been raised and slaughtered for food.

"I don't think our pigs are being mistreated," Ayares said. "They live better than any other pigs."

The names of the first cloned piglets each have their own significance. Millie was named for the millennium. Christa, Alexis and Carrel were named after Dr. Christiaan Barnard, who performed the first human heart transplant, and Dr. Alexis Carrel, who won the Nobel prize in 1912 for his work in the field of transplantation.

And Dotcom?

"Any association with dotcoms right now seems to have a very positive influence on a company's valuation," said Ron James, PPL's managing director.