Animal Pharming

The proteins produced serve many purposes, including treatments for many diseases such as HIV and malaria. These animals can also produce antibodies, which are used in vaccine development. Transgenic animals are very expensive to produce and they have a high value. Also, only a few of the attempts succeed in producing a transgenic animal. The Financial Times predicted that 600 transgenic cows, could supply the worldwide need for pharmaceuticals.

Now that computers are being used more in laboratories, scientists have reduced the time needed to identify and collect genes. As gene identifying has become easier, each known gene sequence is recorded and stored. Animal producers are using the body of genetic information recorded, to help the production of transgenic animals.

Overall, transgenic animals are more cost effective method of producing human drugs because the intended drug is efficiently passed through the milk, with 99 percent purity. The purifying process may become simpler if harvesting proteins from chicken eggs and urine becomes possible. The technology used to develop transgenic animals is nothing new, but, the industrialization of bio-pharming is.

The first transgenic animal, a mouse, was produced in 1981. In an effort to determine which genes were involved with cancer, a gene was inserted into the mouse that made it open to cancer. In 1997 Dr Jay Vacanti grew a human ear from cartilage cells the back of a mouse, causing outrage among animal rights and pro-life groups.  The mouse’s genes were altered, so that it had no hair, and so that it had the right conditions for the ear to be implanted. It is now fought that humans livers, can be grown on animals and will be good enough for transplant.

To conclude, pharming, and cloning has become more popular, in the form of transgenic animals. A growing amount of farmers will stop its farming for meat production, to pharming transgenic animals for pharmaceutical production. The world market is also growing for human pharmaceutical products. Producing transgenic animals is still quite expensive, although costs are decreasing and transgenic animals have certain advantages over other methods for producing human proteins. More commercial use of transgenic animals in food production could also become a possibility.

I believe that the use of transgenic animals is a huge step forward in science. As long as it is used in the appropriate manner, it can be used to create serums to help burns, cure diseases, and even grown liver for transplant. It will be a few years before it is decided whether it should be legal to use transgenic animals. But, if it does become legal, it will be a great advancement in medicine, and biology.