Dolly, a cloned sheep, has been in the press for the past year. She was cloned by Dr. Ian Wilmut and his team from the Rosalin Institute in Scotland. Although many individuals thought this procedure was scientifically impossible, the team accomplished the task they set out to do. Unlike offspring conceived and born in the normal fashion, Dolly was the exact carbon copy of her mother not just a likeness. Cloning of a more limited sort ha

Other than benefitting the livestock industry, cloning can also be an huge leap for mankind. Cloning animals can lead to healthier humans also. Cows can be cloned that produce medicine in their milk. In the future, we may drink altered milk that has been harvested and purified from these animals. The milk from these cows could be used as supplements in human infant formula, to ward off diseases, or to treat autoimmune diseases. Cow's milk is great for calves but not for human infants. By replacing normal cow proteins with human ones infants will be able to take advantage of cow's milk. Also along this line of thought, many people are allergic to cow's milk, so new milk could be produced by cows being genetically altered to remove proteins and sugars to which many people are allergic. Besides using milk to drink, special genes can allow milk to be produced that contains a blood clotting factor needed by hemophiliacs. Polly another cloned sheep after Dolly, had a transfer of the nucleus of a fetal fibroblast and carries the human gene for blood clotting factor IX. This is important because there is a risk of HIV in transfusions that could be diminished with the use of animals. Furthermore, the blood clotting factor fibrinogen is being assessed by the American Red Cross and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute to possibly be put into a bandage that would stop bleeding almost instantly (Sinha). Right now drugs that are being made from human proteins are very scarce and extremely expensive (Friend). Using cloning to produce these proteins in milk will decrease the cost eventually so everyone who needs them will be able to afford them. Consequently, turning animals such as sheep, cows, and goats into living factories for vital human proteins appears advantageous. Cows are the animal of choice though because they by far produce the greatest amount of milk overall which in turn would make the most medicines. "We think there will be sheep and cattle on the ground in two to three years able to produce these proteins," says Ian Wilmut of the Rosalin Institute (Wilmut).

Another aspect of cloning making it beneficial in animals, is the improvement of our livestock. The main reason scientists want to clone animals is because they want to find an animal with exceptional traits and clone it. This could result in larger and disease resistant animals. If the researchers find an animal with high milk yields, high quality meat, or excellent growth rates, this could vastly help world production. Looking at carcass traits, there might be advantages in producing two clones. One identical twin could possibly be killed for carcass evaluation and the other being kept for breeding. Along with being able to get good traits from cloned animals, the sex could also be determined. Sexing the embryos can be done by using DNA markers (Miller). This would be advantageous when males are used only for their meat and females just for dairy, so farmers do not end up with useless animals. Farmers with healthier, more productive animals will be able to generate additional profits. "We have an ever growing world population, so if we can improve our ag

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Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)