Animal Biotechnology

Animal biotechnology can be defined as the use of science and engineering to modify living organism. The goal is mainly to produce products, to improve animals, using knockout gene technology to make animal with a specific inactivated gene and producing  nearly  identical  animal  by  cloning.

Animal biotechnology has many potential uses. Below are some applications:

·     transgenic animals have been created with increased growth rates

·     transgenic animals with enhanced muscle mass

·     enhanced resistance to disease

·     improved use of dietary phosphorous to reduce the environmental impacts of animal manure

·      ransgenic poultry, swine, goats and cattle that generate large quantities of human   proteins in eggs, milk, blood or urine--> these products can be used as human   pharmaceuticals.

·      transfer of the growth hormone gene of rainbow trout directly into carp eggs -->fish  are    one-third larger than normal

·     use of animal organs in humans= xenotransplantation

·     enhanced nutritional content of food for human consumption

·     decrease in the number of animals needed for the food supply

·     improved health of animals and humans

·     increased understanding of human disease…

The advantages of the technology are enormous yet, but disadvantages of the technology still cannot be avoided. Below are described the advantages and the disadvantages of the main animal biotechnology applications.

Animal cloning is commonly defined as the process of making identical genomics copies of an original animal. 

 

Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell

ANIMA CLONING
ADVENTAGES	DISADVENTAGES
create copies of high quality animals	over 95% of cloning attempts fail
se the animals that have the best genetics for some desired quality (fastgrowth, high milk production..)	animal welfare (birth defects, illness, premature death..)
offspring will have similar qualitie	health problems- small imbalances of  hormone, protein, or fat in a clone’s body --> problem to the consumer
top breeders, farmers woud have better animals	lost of biodiversity
	ethical objections

Transgenic animal refers to an animal which has been deliberately modified in the genome. The foreign DNA is introduced to the animal, using recombinant DNA technology. The foreign DNA must be transmitted throughthe germ line so that every cell including the germ cell of the animal contains the same  modified genetic  material.

TRANSGENETIC ANIMAL
ADVENTAGES	DISADVENTAGES
animals can be designed to growbigger and more rapidly	transgenetic animals have potential to harm certain native species of animals or plants
meat with more protein and less fat, eggs with less cholesterol, milkcontaining pharmaceutical products…	affect  on the environment
improve livestock of domesticated animal according to the specific economic traits	altering the living conditions of many species
temporary skin substitute for healingwounds or burns, heart valves..	affect the direction of evolution
disease model	transgenic animals are costly to produce
	low success rate

Artificial insemination involves the collection of sperm from male,  then processed, stored at optimum temperature and artificially introduced to the female reproductive tractfor conception purposes. This method is widely used in cattle and other  farm animals.

ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
ADVENTAGES	DISADVENTAGES
make possible maximum use for better quality sires	ethical issues: general public is against any sex related researches
reduces the occurring of infectious genital diseases	extra labour, facilities, and managerial skills
reeder does not need to maintain a herd sire	highly trained personnel, the knowledge of reproduction
elps to regulate the breedingprogramme	amples should be collected from young sires
cost effective	high sanitary conditions and clean instruments
cross breeding for hybrid	preservation and transportation of semens is difficult under severe climatic conditions
old, heavy and injured sires can also be used without wastingthem
wildey used nowadays

Animal tissue culture is basically the technique of keeping animal tissues alive, outside the body of an organism and growing it in a suitable culture medium containing mixture of nutrients either in solid or liquid form.

ANIMAL TISSUE CULTURE
ADVENTAGES	DISADVENTAGES
control the growth environment of the culture	expertiseand skills
produce monoclonal antibody	massive expenditure of effort and material
mass productions of vaccine using	production of relatively little tissue
better  understanding intercellular activity, cell-cell interactions, toxicology, tissue engineering, immunology

Animal biotechnology is very important as they bring much more advantages than disadvantages. In animal cloning, transgenic animal, animal cell culture and artificial insemination, they all bring benefits to human such as farmers because they can grow more dairy animals and gain lots of dairy products in short time giving more profits. These biotechnology applications also bring somewhat miracles to the medical world as they can provide vaccines, stem cells and organs for transplantation which are absurd in the era before this.

References:

http://www.aboutbioscience.org/topics/animalbiotechnology

http://www.scribd.com/doc/29690055/animal-biotechnology-the-advantages-disadvantages-of-animal-biotechnology

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10418&page=51