Agricultural applications for transgenic livestock

Transgenic animals are produced by introducing ‘foreign’ DNA into the genetic material of pre-implantation embryos. This DNA is present in all tissues of the resulting individual. This technique is of great importance to many aspects of biomedical science, including gene regulation, the immune system, cancer research, developmental biology, biomedicine, manufacturing and agriculture. The production of transgenic animals is one of several new and developing technologies that will have a profound impact on the genetic improvement of livestock. The rate at which these technologies are incorporated into production schemes will determine the speed at which we will be able to achieve our goal of more efficiently producing livestock that meets consumer and market demand.