LONDON, July 6: Scientists who helped engineer the first cloned sheep are close to generating human plasma from animals, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

PPL Therapeutics, the Scottish firm that helped Edinburgh's Roslin Institute clone Dolly the sheep last year, is developing chemical technology to alter the plasma genes of sheep and cows, replacing them with the human equivalent, The Observer reported.

When the animals lactate, their milk will contain the key elements of human blood plasma albumen, clotting factors and antibodies, the newspaper reported.

PPL plans to rear herds of the animals and manufacture plasma from the proteins extracted from their milk, informed Dr Ron James, the firm's managing director as saying. Only 5 per cent of Britain's population regularly give blood. Genetically modified animals could produce 10,000 times more plasma a year than a human donor.

James, celebrating the first birthday on Saturday of Dolly the sheep, told the newspaper that the results would be of great medical benefit to man.Britain's national blood service, meanwhile, was more cautious.

``Using animal-grown human plasma is fine in theory,'' an unidentified blood service spokeswoman told the observer, but until the clinical trials are complete you can never be sure that you have the full plasma equivalent, or whether the animals will pass on diseases to man.''

The announcements by scientists at the Roslin institute in February that they had created Dolly using cells from another sheep's udder started an ethical storm and led several governments including the Clinton administration to initiate legislation that would limit the uses of cloning.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.