While there are dairy industry processes that can reduce the allergenic potential of normal milk, they are expensive and can result in a bitter taste.
Another gene manipulation technique using a process called homologous recombination could theoretically knock out, rather than suppress, the gene that produces BLG but the researchers said that, so far, this has not worked.
Bruce Whitelaw, professor of animal biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, said the New Zealand research "offers a good example of how these technologies can be used to provide alternative strategies to current manufacturing process".
He said that although RNA interference has been shown to work in manipulating plants and worms, "it has not worked in livestock before".
Whitelaw told Reuters that aside from accentuating or reducing genetically determined characteristics in farm animals, such as growth rate, the technique could be used to improve defence against infection.
"Time will tell how widely applicable RNA interference will be in GM livestock. But this is certainly a milestone study in this field," he said.
(Reporting by Chris Wickham; Editing by Dan Lalor)
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