Herman, the world’s first genetically modified bull, has died at the ripe old age of 13, curators at the Dutch museum where he was part of a live exhibition said. Herman was born in December 1990 at the Dutch biotechnological firm Pharming which had added a human gene to his make-up to enable him to sire cows to produce milk with a human protein to combat or slow down infections. His birth caused uproar in the Netherlands with many animal rights organisations and medical ethics protesting against genitically modifying animals. In 1996 Herman retired and was castrated after fathering 55 descendants. The last two years of his life were spent in the Naturalis museum of natural history in Leiden.
