Tag: transgenic organisms

An interspecific hybrid is the product of mating between parents of two different species. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse (mare). Mules are more patient, sure-footed, hardy and long-lived than horses, and they are considered less obstinate, faster, and more intelligent than donkeys.

In research studies, animals that have been genetically engineered include cattle, pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, dogs, cats, fish, rats and mice. As scientists have sequenced the genomes of domestic animals, more is known about genes and the traits that they control.

A bioreactor may refer to any manufactured or engineered device or system that supports a biologically active environment. In animals, the production of biologically active recombinant proteins use transgenic animals as bioreactor. Bioreactor or fermentation processes are the core manufacturing process in the biotech industry. 

A transgenic animal is one that carries a foreign gene that has been deliberately inserted into its genome. The foreign gene is constructed using recombinant DNA methodology. A transgenic organism carries in all its cells a foreign gene that was inserted by laboratory techniques. Each transgenic organism is produced by introducing cloned genes, composed of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from microbes, animals or plants, into plant and animal cells. 

The ethical issues considered for developing transgenic animals are yielding capacity, long term effect on the environment, quality of the breed. They include bioethicists, environmentalists. the results of genetic alteration would be suffered and hence such experimentation should be banned (Eg, a pig with no legs)

The genetic engineering of animals has increased significantly in recent years, and the use of this technology brings with it ethical issues, some of which relate to animal welfare — defined by the World Organisation for Animal Health as “the state of the animal.