Animal Biotechnology

1. Animal Biotechnology

2. Physiological Needs • Animals need: • Food (Nutrients) • Oxygen • Water • Vitamins • Minerals • Who would have guessed….

3. Feeding Animals • Animals are not autotrophic • They cannot produce their own food • This explains why my parakeet died when I was 9…. • They must consume other organisms (plants or animals) for energy

4. Cellular Respiration • Process of converting sugars to chemical energy • Occurs in the mitochondria • Who wants to learn the entire cycle? • Me neither, so here is the simplified reaction

6. Oops… 1 glucose + 6 oxygen yields 6 water + 6 carbon dioxide + ATP

7. Other Nutrients • Some nutrients can be absorbed through “environmental conditions” • Whatever that means….. • Sunlight (Vitamin D) is the classic (only?) example of this

8. Oxygen • Guess why animals need oxygen • You guessed it (didn’t you)! • Cellular Respiration • Comes from the AIR • Occasionally absorbed from water or other sources

9. Water • Other than air, water is the single most important factor in the survival of all animals • Water is used in many processes and is essential for life • Animals can last for weeks without food (in theory) but only a number of days at best without water

10. Vitamins • From their diet animals also need: • Vitamin B12 • Vitamin A • Vitamin E • Vitamin C • And all those other ones found in the Flintstones vitamins your parents forced you to eat

11. Minerals • Animals also need: • Calcium • Phosphorous • Sodium • Etc • Some minerals are toxic to some animals, even in small amounts

13. Advances in Animal Biotech • Scientists have used biotechnology to create advances in the following areas of biotechnology. • Animal Breeding • Animal Health and Nutrition • Food Production • Pharmaceuticals • Transplant Organs

14. Animal Breeding • For centuries farmers and ranchers have bred large animals to produce traits such as: • Feed efficiency • Disease resistance • High milk production

15. Breeding Types • Traditional Breeding – mating of male and female animals producing single offspring. • Selective Breeding – mating of animals with intention to pass favorable traits to progeny.

16. Limitations of Traditional Breeding • Livestock animals usually produce only one offspring a year, 5-8 offspring in a lifetime and cannot breed until they are 3-5 years old. • Females, such as cows, are usually fertile only about a 12 hour period.

17. Limitations of Traditional Breeding • A breeding male and female need to be in the same general geographic area. • The sex of offspring are distributed fairly equally between male and female, which is not always desirable.

18. Modern Breeding • Modern reproductive techniques are making genetic changes in livestock faster and more precise. • We are going to look at; • Artificial insemination (AI) • Embryo Transfer • Semen Sexing • Cloning • Genetic Engineering

19. Artificial Insemination • Artificial Insemination (Ai) – method in which semen is collected from male animal and inserted into the uterus of one or more females with desirable traits.

20. Artificial Insemination • Has been used for centuries but not commonly used until breeders discovered how to freeze semen, first calf born from frozen semen in 1953. • Frozen sperm can now be kept for decades and shipped anywhere in the world on dried ice or liquid nitrogen

21. Artificial Insemination • Benefits; • One superior bull can replace thousands of herd bulls. • Can introduce new and better genetics into a herd. • Disadvantages; • Requires special techniques and equipment.

22. Artificial Insemination • Process: Female’s stages of fertility are monitored precisely so that insemination can take place during the short period when she is fertile. • Diagnostic tests based on immunoassays are used to check for ovulation and pregnancy.

23. Artificial Insemination AI is combined with hormonal techniques that are used to • 1) increase the number of eggs produced during a single cycle (superovulation), • 2) accelerate onset of puberty and • 3) coordinate reproductive cycles of a herd of cows (estrus synchronization)

24. Artificial Insemination • How it is performed..

25. Embryo Transfer • Embryo – a developing individual from the fertilized union of egg and sperm. • Embryo Transfer – growing embryos are transferred into a surrogate female who carries the embryo to term.

27. Embryo Transfer

28. Embryo Transfer • Benefits: • Breeders can save superior female animals for producing eggs and use other cows to carry out the pregnancy • A single superior female can produce embryos for more than 30 offspring a year. • Embryos can be frozen and preserved indefinitely

29. Embryo Transfer • Benefits: • Embryos can be shipped anywhere in the world • Embryos can be transferred to to animals of different breeds in the same species.

30. Embryo Transfer • Surrogate – a receiving female animal that carries an unrelated, inserted embryo through pregnancy to birth. • In-vetro fertilization – combining the egg in the laboratory, literally “in glass”

31. Semen Sexing • Process by which sperm cells are separated by sex. • Can help determine the sex of an offspring in artificial insemination or Embryo transfer.

32. Semen Sexing • Sperm bearing x-chromosome produces a female while sperm with a y-chromosome produce a male. • In cattle x-chromosomes contain about 3-4% more DNA versus y-chromosomes

33. Semen Sexing • Scientists use this difference in a technique called Flow Cytometry. • Flow Cytometry – fluorescent dye is added to sperm DNA. Cells with x-chromosomes fluoresce and scatter light differently from those with y-chromosomes. Lasers and light detectors measure the difference, and the information directs the machine to rapidly sort the cells.

34. Semen Sexing • In 1999 cell sorters produced about 400,000 sexed sperm per hour with about 90% accuracy. • This processes has about a 50% conception rate, with about 90% predictability of the sex of the offspring.

36. Cloning • Clone – an exact copy of an organism down to the genitic level. • We have seen clones in sheep (Dolly), Cats (C.C.) and cattle (K.C.)

37. Cloning • Benefits: • Farmers can have herds of superior, identical animals, with desired traits. • Disadvantages: • Loss of genetic variablility • Expense, technical needs

38. Other Cloning Issues • Cloning in animals is rare because it is EXPEN$IVE. • Usually it is only used in research or to preserve the most outstanding traits and characteristics • The process results in a large amount of tissue damage

39. Cloning…. • Cloning typically relies on the use of specialized sex cells • However new advances with ennucleation has led to applications for the cloning of other types of cells

40. Immunoassay – technique using antibodies produced as an immune response to a particular disease-causing agent

41. Animal Immune System • In advanced animals (everything we will deal with) the Immune System is controlled by the lymph system • White blood cells and antibodies attack any antigens present in the blood

42. Antigens, Antibodies, and Vaccines • Antigens are molecules that stimulate an immune response • Antibodies are proteins found in the blood that help the body identify and neutralize foreign objects • Vaccines are antigenic preparations used to establish immunity I got most of this from wikipedia….

43. More on Vaccines • Vacca means cow • Originally used to prevent smallpox by giving people small amounts of cowpox • Different from variolation (innoculation) where you are actually given a small amount of the live virus….. • Vaccines are usually dead or inactivated organisms or purified products derived from them

44. Mini Project • Research Vaccines and develop a mini-proposal for the development of a vaccine for some disease. • Proposal should include: • Type of vaccine (there are 4 main types) • Brief history of vaccines • Explanation of how the vaccine would be created and then delivered • Where the vaccine would be given (geographically) • Why the vaccine is needed • This is due at the end of class today

45. Animal Diseases • Biotechnology has a big impact on the identification and control of many animal diseases • Keep in mind that when I say animal that usually refers to us as well…..

46. Diagnosis • Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay, or ELISA, is a biochemical technique used mainly in immunology to detect the presence of an antibody or an antigen in a sample. • Antibodies in the blood indicate the presence of a pathogen the body is attempting to fight • ELISA tests are usually produced from antigens extracted from research animals

48. Bacterial Infections • Bacterial infections in animals are tested by culturing samples in an incubator • Different agar media can be used to determine the presence of different bacteria upon examination after growth • We proved we could grow the stuff, wonder if there’s money out there for people that can grow it….

49. Prevention and Treatment • Animals could be produced with genetic resistance to a number of pathogens • Insertion of appropriate gene segments from naturally resistant organisms could lead to resistance

50. Needle in a Haystack? Try Needle in a 10,000 acre hay field….. • In order to identify the gene (segment) responsible for a particular trait (like resistance) scientists create Knockout Animals • These are animals (or plants) that do not contain the gene (segment) • This tells us what that gene (segment) does