Lecture 1: Introduction to

Animal Biotechnology
 What is Animal Biotechnology?
 The application of biological principles in manipulating living
organisms or their derivatives to either improve or multiply a
product.
 Aim to improve human health, animal health and welfare, and
increasing livestock productivity.
The history of animal biotechnology?
 Selective animal breeding has been practiced for nearly 10,000
years to produce selective traits in livestock.
 Crossing diverse strains of animals (hybridizing) to produce greater
genetic variety.
 The offspring from these crosses then are bred selectively to
produce the greatest number of desirable traits.
 Modern era of animal biotechnology?
 Today, breeders are under market pressure to improve livestock in
terms of quantity and quality.
 Biotechnological tools can be applied in:-
• Production of high yielding animal,
• improvement in the quality attributes,
• production of hormones,
• functional and designer livestock products,
• enzymes,
• bio-preservation of livestock products,
• efficient byproduct utilization,
• quality control and
• meat authentication.
 Production of high yielding animal
 The methods of livestock production has to be efficient in respond to
the pressure of the ever growing human population.
 Transgenesis allows the manipulation of genes from one organism
which can subsequently introduced into genome of another organism.
 Cow with specific human genes produce more milk and milk with less
lactose or cholesterol.
 ‘Healthy Pork’ with human IGF 1 gene had 30% more loin mass, 10%
more lean tissue and 20% less fat.
 Improvement in quality attributes
 Major genes for meat quality offer excellent opportunities for increasing
level of meat quality and decreasing variability.
 Pale, soft, exudative meat, or PSE meat, describes a carcass quality
condition known to occur in pork, beef, and poultry.
 Gene that affects tenderness of meat before slaughter are CLPG in sheep,
myostatin in beef and RN in pork.
 The quality of carcass can be improved by manipulating the lipoprotein
receptor and leptin genes to control exudation of cholesterol and fat.
 Functional and designer livestock
 To develop strains of starter cultures capable of enhanced
antichlolestermic, anticarcinogenic and antagonistic influence.
 Dairy industry enveloped with instability of starter strains, bacteriophage
infection and off flavor problem.
 New lactic acid bacteria strains through genetic engineering of phage
resistant strain, tailor made flavor and therapeutic functions.
 Technologies such as microarray, RAPD or AFLP can be used to access the
genetic stability of a starter strain through time.
 Bio preservation and Bio conversion
 Livestock products being highly prone to microbial contamination. Eg.
Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Clostridium, Listeria and Yersinia.
 The antimicrobial activity possessed by lactic acid bacterial offer scope for
the development of an effective natural preservation process.
 Organic waste materials such as sago waste into useful animal feed or
chemicals of interest in pharmaceutical and chemical industries
 Why are genetically
modified animals produced?
1. To help identify, isolate and characterize genes in order to understand
their function and regulation.
2. To provide research models of human diseases.
3. To provide organs and tissues for use in human transplant surgery.
4. To produce value-added food which contain therapeutic proteins; or
improve their nutritional value.
5. To enhance livestock improvement programs (disease management,
genetic selection and increase yield).
Agricultural Applications of Animal Genetic Modification
 The Technology Involved
Based on the science of genetic engineering
 Transgenic
 Transferal of a specific gene from one organism to another
 Gene splicing is used to introduce one or more genes of an organism
into a second organism
 A transgenic animal is created once the second organism
incorporates the new DNA into its own genetic material.

 Cloning
 Reproductive cloning begins with somatic cell nuclear transfer
(SCNT)
 nucleus from an egg cell (oocyte) and replace it with a nucleus from
a donor adult somatic cell, which is any cell in the body except for
an oocyte or sperm
CLONING

 Produce multiple copies of

mammals that are nearly
identical copies of other animals.
 Cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, horses,
mules, cats, rats and mice have
been cloned, beginning with the
first cloned animal, a sheep
named Dolly, in 1996.
 Safety Issues
1. What are the health risks to human on consumption of
genetically modified animals and their products such rBST
(bovine somatotropin) milk?
2. What substances expressed as a result of the genetic
modification are likely to remain in food?
3. Will putting a functional protein like a growth hormone in an
animal affect the person who consumes food from that animal?
 Safety Issues
4. What will be the consequences, if a modified animal will breed
with other domestic or wild animals thereby transferring the
introduced genes to these populations?
5. There are also concerns about the risk that drug resistance gene
markers used in genetic engineering procedures might
inadvertently be transferred and expressed.
 Environmental Considerations
Alteration of the ecologic balance regarding feed sources and predators,
the introduction of transgenic animals that alter the health of existing
animal populations and the disruption of reproduction patterns and their
success.
1. What is the possibility the altered animal will enter the environment?
2. Will the animal’s introduction change the ecological system and what
are the consequences?
3. Will the animal become established in the environment?
4. Will it interact with and affect the success of other animals in the new
community?
 ARE WE PLAYING WITH GOD?
 Some people consider this technology as
blasphemous.
 Transgenic animals can pose problems.
 Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus are forbidden to eat certain
foods.
 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
 Regulations
 FDA and FDCA.
 In many countries, genetically engineered
for biomedical research purposes.
 Pigs are used for organ transplantation
studies.
 Animal use is carefully regulated by the
Department of Agriculture.

 Intellectual Property
 It takes seven to nine years and $$$
millions are need to develop, test and
market a new genetically engineered
product.
 Protect investments and intellectual
property through the patent system.
 In 1988, the first patent was issued on a
transgenic animal.
 ANIMAL WELFARE
 Are cows injected with bST harmed?
 Reports of increased mastitis, decreased conception rates,
arthritis and lameness.
 Calves and lambs produced through in vitro fertilization or cloning
tend to have higher birth weights and longer gestation periods.
 Transgenic animals do not express the inserted gene properly,
often resulting in anatomical, physiological or behavioral
abnormalities.