Cloning will decrease genetic diversity in breeding stock, generate genetically identical animals for research and produce targeted genetic alterations. The main advantage to cloning would not be in selection, but the rapid distrubution of geneitc progress from elite herds to the commercial producer. At the present time this is achieved through artificial insemination, but this only applies to half of the genes. Embryo transfer is also used, but it is very limited to the commercial producer. With this technology, producers could improve the performance of their herds tremendously in a single year.
Human proteins are in great demand for the treatment of a variety of diseases.
Producing transgenic animals by nuclear transfer has immediate practical advantages, such as, using less than half of the experimental animals to generate founder animals. A number of potential opportunities exist for altering the nutritional content value of milk. A potential opportunity is the production of a pharmaceutically important protein in the milk of transgenic sheep. The gene of interest encodes a protein that is of therapeutic importance, such as tissue plasminogen activator used to disolve blood clots in humans. A cow milk is ideal for a calf, but not for premature infants.