Video crew at Hematech, Inc.
Collection of
human polyclonal antibodies from a cloned transgenic steer by
plasmapheresis, a procedure used with human patients.
The public experience with animal
biotechnology often starts and ends with Dolly the sheep, the
first mammal ever cloned from an adult cell. The hype that
surrounded Dolly rapidly became entangled with the debate over
human cloning, and the ensuing discussion failed to elaborate on,
or even differentiate between, the broad range of technologies
encompassed by the ill-defined term "animal biotechnology". In the
absence of information, animal biotechnologies tend to evoke a
negative reaction. To address this knowledge deficit and the fact
that few general audience educational resources about this topic
have been developed by publicly-funded animal scientists, a
30-minute educational movie entitled Animal Biotechnology was
produced.
The movie begins with a brief historical description of
the development of various animal biotechnologies and places the
most controversial of these technologies, cloning and genetic
engineering, within that framework. Both biomedical and
agricultural applications of animal biotechnology are discussed,
in addition to some of the science-based and ethical concerns that
are engendered by certain applications. Excerpts from interviews
with leading academic and industry scientists in the field,
conducted at the UC Davis Transgenic Animal Conference in 2007,
are interspersed throughout the movie. The script and visuals
underwent anonymous scientific peer-review prior to release.
The
target audience for the movie includes college and high school
students and interested members of the general public. To make the
movie widely available to the general public, it will be posted on
YouTube, the UC Davis Animal Biotechnology website, and DVD copies
will be made available to educators and other interested parties
at scientific and educational meetings. Funding
for this project was provided by USDA NRI Grant 2005-55204-15745.
