Question

movie"Animal pharm:Inside transgenic and cloning 1)Chose an animal that was genetically modified and explain what they were doing to make it better. 2)DO you agree with this or not?why or why not? 3)what will you propose to be done to solve the same problem that they wanted to do?

Answer 1

1) Belgian blues are genetically modified by selective breeding which lead to each bull weighing about over a ton. The Belgian Blue cattle has a 'double muscling' phenotype, where each muscle in its body grows to a quantity many times more than normal (Usually a calf is born with two times the number of muscle fibers at birth than a normal calf). This heritable condition is due to hyperplasia or increase in number of muscle fibers rather than enlargement of the fibers or hypertrophy. The cattle is hyper-sculpted, with a ultra muscular physique, but this breed's meat has a reduced fat content and reduced tenderness, as all its feed is converted to lean muscle. Belgian Blue cattle have a natural mutation in the gene coding for Myostatin, a protein that normally inhibits muscle growth. Selective breeding among Belgian blue cattle selects for this defective allele that leads to dysregulated muscle growth, reduced fat deposition (resulting in lean meat) and thereby the double muscling phenotype. Belgian blue cattle was raised to be used as a dairy and beef breed.

2) Personally I DO NOT AGREE with this form of artificial tinkering of the genes, just to meet the needs of the never exhausting food industry. Natural evolution has its course where there is a balance between good and bad genes, as well as the penetrance of a phenotype balances with the survival rate of the population. Belgian blue cattle have a lower feed conversion ratio (FCR) because of the lower feed intake compared to the weight gain. Usually this breed is supplied with high protein rich diet as the majority is converted into protein rich muscle fibers, and less deposition of fat. But additionally this breed faces problems: 1)Belgian blue's bone structure is same as the normal cattle, therefore the muscle to bone ratio is higher. This hinders movement of the animal. They may also suffer from bone, joint and cardio-respiratory problems. 2) These cows experience difficult birth, as their borth canal is narrower. 3) As already mentioned, the calf's weight and size is also increased, which gives rise to complications during parturition. Caesarean sections are common during calf birth among Belgian blue cows. Calves also suffer from a number of birth defects like enlarged tongues which make them difficult to nurse. 4) The bull's testicular weight and the quantity and quality of the semen have been observed to be reduced, which is a direct outcome of the trade-off between increasing body mass and physical health.

3) Cattle breeding has been donw for ages to select for desirable traits that will meet the never ending needs of the dairy and beef industry sectors. Nevertheless, a close examination of the food habits of the cattle that lead to increased body mass can be monitored and selected for. A sustainable high protein and fiber diet may be enough, along with external supplements that may increase the milk production. This is to avoid any genetic tinkering for selection of traits, beneficial for human needs. To avoid such additional health problems for the animal, precisioin animal breeding has come up, with advances in the application of quantitative genetic theory to animal breeding techniques and approaches. Also integrating a systems biology framework to precision breeeding will identify the molecular markers and gene expression patterns closely associated with the gene that is being tinkered.