Transgenic Milk

This week it has been announced in Argentina that a group of scientists have made a transgenic calf which carries two genes for human milk proteins. The GM calf was born on 6 April 2011 after being cloned by nuclear ransfer with the genes for lysozyme and  lactoferrin.  The headlines cry out " Human milk from cows" but this transgenic animal is not producing truly human milk, just cow milk with higher levels of these two human milk proteins.  Human milk has much more of these proteins than any other mammal milk.  Lysozyme is an anti-microbial enzyme and lactoferrin acts as an anti-inflammatory  agent.  

Chinese scientists claim that they have already produced a herd of over 300 animals with the "human milk" genes and could send their milk product to the market in three years.  This Sky News report gives an overly simplistic view of the process but gives some added perspective.

Add this example to the list of transgenic animals for topic 4.4.9 State two examples of the current uses of genetically modified crops or animals.