Designing an Animal Order Animals, like us, carry their genetic inheritance locked in a special chemical deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA located in the cell's nucleus. Subunits of DNA, the genes, control the expression of certain traits to give meatier muscle, or richer milk. The process of genetic manipulation in animals starts with isolating the human gene for the desired protein, then developing a string of genetic material that tells the host when and where to make the protein. Scientists first obtain healthy embryos from the mother, then keep them alive under laboratory conditions. But medicine could also be a winner.
Transgenic animals offer better models for studying human disease.
For instance, medical researchers in Canada developed mice carrying components of human blood in their veins. They use them to study diseases involving the blood such as AIDs, the anemias and leukemias. The usefulness of transgenic animals doesn't stop there, Biotechnology companies are exploring the possibility of using livestock as production factories for human pharmaceuticals. Such animals would carry human genes and these would order their cells to manufacture human proteins for harvest in their blood or milk. It usually takes a high degree of specialized skill to breed such animals.