Importance Of Transgenic Animals

ABSTRACT

The transgenic animals are, nowadays, very widely used in various biotechnological fields especially in the fields of medicine, agriculture, industries and bioreactors. It is due to this successful use of transgenic animals that human work is made much easier and the comfort level has increased by great measures. There has been researches that were conducted regarding the study of transgenic animals, and it was concluded that the transgenic animals are not only safe to use, but also faster and convenient than normal animals. Animals like goats, pig, mice, and minkeys are the most commonly used transgenic animals. The idea of transgenicity was also applied to cows for better and increased ilk production. Bacteria also find immense

They find their use in medicine, agriculture, industry, crop production and animal husbandry etc. Hence transgenic animals, without doubt, is considered to be one of the most important application of biotechnological processes.

Some of the various fields in which transgenic animals can be put to use are described below:

USE OF TRANSGENIC ANIMALS IN MEDICINE:

The use of transgenic animals in medicine is one of the most successful idea in the era of mankind. There are many areas in which transgenic animals can be put to use, as follows:

1. Normal physiology and development: Transgenic animals can be used to test the effect of the excess or deficiency of certain elements (as required) on human health. One of the most important animal used for this purpose is pig, because scientists can now replace pig protein with human protein and as such the exact effects on human health can be determined. This is an important method of drug development, for example, the development of genetically engineered insulin.

Eli Lily, an American company, have prepared insulin on a large scale by producing the A and B chains of human insulin separately using two colonies of E.coli which were later joined by disulphide

Their aim was to understand the importance of transgenic animals in bioreactors. They discovered that out of all the possible organisms that can be used in a bioreactor, including bacteria, mammalian cells, transgenic plants and transgenic animals, the transgenic animals were most ideally suited for the purpose. This is because they have the capacity of producing complex biological proteins in an effective and an economic manner, thus making the operation of the bioreactors cost effective as is evident from the table shown