Manipulation of Reproduction and Transgenic Animals

Animals are a source of high protein, food, fiber and leather which men have been using since the time immemorial. In India milk and milk products have become a part of our civilization. Even in any small festival, demand of these two gets increased as several milk-based sweets and food items are prepared. Right from God worship to dining table use of milk and milk products is unavoidable. However, milk production could not keep pace with milk demand. Therefore, to meet milk demand synthetic milk and synthetic khoa are illegally sold in market even after several punishment threats declared by the Government. Due to unaware use of synthetic milk several infants have been reported to lose their lives.

Production of food from animals is inexpensive and exhausting, and less efficient than plants.

The most common farm hoofed animals are cattle, sheep, goats and pigs but unlike plants their management is expensive. Inspite of expenses rendered on nutrition, shelter and management, animals have been our companion since the dawn of civilization. Moreover, there is regional variation on availability of animal protein to human diet due to cost, culture and religion. In biological sense, despite several similarities animals differ from plants in their reproduction systems such as number of gametes (ova), completion of life cycle, production of products, etc. Except pigs females of all common livestocks produce one egg at about monthly intervals. Therefore, through biotechnological methods discovered in recent years, improvement in reproductive systems of animals, their milk proteins and milk-products, and several novel products which normally lack in animals can be carried out.