Advantages And Disadvantages Of Transgenic Animals

The Advantages of Transgenic Animals:

Transgenic animals benefit human welfare in many ways nowadays. The ability to manufacture transgenic animals is one of the many breakthroughs in molecular biology, occurring at an increasing rate. The ethical issues often comes to mind when one thinks of the creation of transgenic animals however there are many advantages which are outlined below. These advantages are sectioned in to three groups; agriculture, medicine and industry.
Why Do We Produce Transgenic Animals?

The most common and first successfully engineered transgenic animal was a mouse. Following the mouse were many other animals such as pigs, rabbits, sheep and cattle.
One of the most common reasons transgenic animals are produced is to

the engineering of transgenic cattle to produce milk containing a human protein in the hope to treat human emphysema.
The Advantages; Contribution to human welfare:

Agriculture Applications:
Quality: With the use of recombinant DNA technology farmers are now able to have larger herds with specific traits. Farmers have used growth hormones to achieve results that are now capable of being achieved with the implementation of transgenic animals. There are now transgenic cattle the produce more milk than the average cow and more that produce milk with less cholesterol or lactose. There are transgenic sheep that produce more wool and cattle and pigs that have more meat on them.
Breeding: Increased milk production and high growth rates have been aimed for in the past by using selective breeding to achieve these desired traits. Now with the advancements in molecular biology to produce transgenic animals, these results can be achieved in shorter amounts of time and with more precision Disease Resistance: Although very few genes are known of that are responsible for resistance of disease in farm animals; scientists are attempting to produce animals that are disease resistant, e.g. influenza-resistant pigs.
Industrial

There is huge potential for this in the medical field; a supporting example is that of a transgenic calf, created in Finland, that carries a gene that makes the substance which for promotes the growth of red blood cells in humans.
Xenotransplantation: Many people die every year due to a lack of donor organs. Xenotransplantation may be the resolution. Transgenic pigs may provide the answer being able to transplant a heart, lung or kidney from a pig into a human. At the moment a particular pig protein is hindering the process. This process causes rejection of the organ however steps are underway to remove this pig protein and replace it with a human protein.
Nutritional supplements and pharmaceuticals: IN 1997, Rosie, the first transgenic cow, produced human protein rich milk (2.5g per litre). This provided a more nutritionally balanced milk. Products such as growth hormone and insulin may soon be obtained from the milk of transgenic goats, sheep or cows. This will lead to treatment for debilitating illness such as hereditary emphysema and cystic