Chinese fire up glow-in-the-dark pig

There's some good news today for those of you who concerned about how to find your sausages in the event of a power cut: Chinese scientists have announced the successful production of "partially green fluorescent pigs".

The glow-in-the-dark porkers are the work of a team at the Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin, Reuters reports. Boffins used genetic material from jellyfish which was "injected into the womb of a sow which gave birth to the three pigs 114 days later".

Professor Liu Zhonghua explained to news agency Xinhua: "The mouth, trotters and tongue of the pigs are green under ultraviolet light."

The glowing Chinese pig - apparently designed to "boost stem cell research" - is unlikely to impress the Taiwanese team which earlier this year managed to produce a full-fat fluorescent pig with green internal organs and a green-tinged skin. ®