Commonly used lab.

animals
• Kingdom: Animalia
Almost all lab.
• Phylum: Chordata Animals belong to
• Class: Mammalia mammalia class
• Most widely used:
• Mammals: Monkey, baboons, chimpanzees, cat,
dog, guinea pig, rat, mouse, mice
• Other less widely used:
• Birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, shark
 Definitions
• Rodents: “Rodere” meaning gnaw. two
continuously growing incisors in the upper
and lower jaws which must be kept short by
gnawing.
• 40 % of mammal species
• include mice, rats, squirrels, porcupines,
beavers, chipmunks, guinea pigs, and voles.
• sharp incisors that they use to gnaw wood,
break into food, and bite predators.
• Eat stored food and spread disease.
 Animals
– Rodents:
– Rat (Rattus norvegicus)
– Mouse (Mus musculus)
– Guinea pig (Cavia porcylus)
– Gerbil ()
– Hamster ()
 Animals
– Lagomorphs
– Rabbit
– Carnivores:
– Dog
– Cat
– Ferret
• Nonhuman primates:
– Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)
 Biological names
• Genus and species followed by variety
• Genus:
• Species:
• Breed:
• Strain:
• Variety:
• Breed and strain are from the same
species.
 Species
• Almost all domestic pet rats and lab rats
belong to a single species, the Norway rat
(Rattus norvegicus).
• Wild black rats (Rattus rattus)
• rattus & norvegicus are species
• 66 species within genus : Rattus
 Strain
• Rat strains -- laboratory rats that have
been bred in isolation for generations.
• A rat strain is created through breeding
• Similar to each other and can therefore be
used in research.
• E. g Wistar, Fisher, and Sprague Dawley,
and their hundreds of internal divisions
 Breed
• A type of animal that differs from all
others of the same species in some way,
has a separate history and breed name,
and has been breeding true for a number
of generations.
• Beagle and Doberman are examples of
different dog breeds.
• 1,000 dog breeds
• No separate breeds of rats
 Breed Vs strain
• Overlap between the two terms
• Both refer to subgroups of individuals in a given
species which share common traits due to common
descent.
• Strain → physiological differences
• Breed → morphological differences.
• Physiological differences → differences in physical
and chemical function, and therefore are often internal
and invisible.
• E. g a high resistance to cold or heat, a blood clotting
disorder, an immunodeficiency, high milk yield (cows),
strong wool (sheep)
• Morphological differences → differences in form or
function, and therefore tend to be external and visible.
• E. g body size, leg length, coat color, coat length, tail
length, head shape, and ear placement.
 Varieties in rats
• All rats are shown in six Varieties:
 STANDARD – With short, smooth, glossy
hair
 REX – With curly hair and curly whiskers
 TAILLESS – Complete absence of a tail
 HAIRLESS – Complete absence of hair
 SATIN – Thinner, longer coat, with a
lustrous sheen
 DUMBO – Larger ears set on the side of the
head
Varieties in rats (Rex)
Varieties in rats (Rex)
Varieties in rats (Dumbo Rat)
Varieties in rats (Satin Rat)
Satin Rat (Ivory)
 Inbred strain
• Defined as a product of over 20 generations of
brother-sister matings, which results in
individuals that are 98% identical to each other.
• After 40 generations of inbreeding, they are
99.5% similar. In other words, they are almost
clones.
• At this stage, the inbreeding coefficient should
be ∼ 0.99 (i. e, residual heterozygosity
approximately 1%).
• Animals of the same strain and sex are
homozygous and genetically very similar.
• .
 Inbred strain
• Advantage
• remain genetically stable over a long period of time.
• However, it is important to be aware that the use of
inbred strains depends on the nature of the
experiments.
• Disadvantage
• Constant monitoring of the genetic stability of an
inbred strain is required.
• Each of them represents a very narrow selection of
the wide and functional genetic variation observed in
a wild population.
• The use of at least two inbred strains is often
preferable when toxicity studies are extrapolated to
human population.
 Laboratory rat
• A laboratory rat is a rat of the species Rattus norvegicus
which is bred and kept for scientific research.
• Laboratory rats have served as an important animal
model for research in psychology, medicine, and other
fields.
Comparison and contrast between
• RAT : Wistar and Sprague Dawley Strains
• Common name : Rat
• Scientific name : Rattus norvegicus
• Strain : Wistar and Sprague Dawley
• Source: Denmark
• Coat color:  Albino
Comparison and contrast between
• Wistar rats → wider head, long ears, and
the tail length always shorter than that of
the body length.
• Sprague - Dawley rats→ longer and
narrower in head , longer tail, which may
equal or be longer than the body length.
• Wistar rats are more active than Sprague
Dawley rats
 Strains of lab. rats
• Albino Wistar :
• Developed at the Wistar Institute in
1906.
• Easy to handle and male aggressive
behavior develops relatively late.
• An outbred or random - bred strain
and a large number of varieties
exist worldwide.
Sprague dowley
Sprague dowley Rats
 Strains of lab. rat
• Long - Evans hooded:
• Developed by Dr. Long & Evans at
Berkeley, California in 1910.
• Crossing several Wistar females with
wild gray male.
• Head and extremities - black or brown
• Rest of the body - white with pigmented
eyes
• easily handled
• Level of aggressive behavior is generally
high.
• Behavioral and obesity research
Long Evans Rat
Hairless rats
 Why rats can’t vomit ?
• Rats have a powerful and effective gastroesophageal barrier
(1) Rats can't relax the crural sling while contracting the rest
of the diaphragm.
– The diaphragm has two muscles: the crural (muscle fibers attached to
the vertebrae, called the crural sling) and the costal (muscle fibers
attached to the rib cage). For vomiting costal muscle contraction and
crural muscle relaxation required. Doesn’t occur in rat.
(2) they can't wrench open the esophageal sphincter.
– esophageal sphincter is opened during vomiting with the help of the
longitudinal muscle of the esophagus. Weak in rat.
(3) rats lack the necessary neural connections to coordinate the
muscles involved in vomiting.
– Brainstem nuclei and the muscle systems used in vomiting, rats don’t
have complex connections between the nuclei or between the
brainstem and the viscera that are required for such a coordinated
behavior. E. g Rat, mouse, guinea pig, rabbit
 Alternative to vomiting
• Rats do experience nausea and have evolved
an alternative to vomiting:
• pica, the consumption of non-nutritive
substances
• When rats feel nauseous they eat things like
clay, kaolin, dirt and even hardwood bedding
(eating clay and dirt is a type of pica called
geophagia).
• Clay -- binds and inactivates chemicals so
deactivates toxins.
• Food avoidance Response- First line defence
• Pica -- second line of defense against toxins.
 Kangaroo Rat
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Rodentia
• Family: Heteromyidae
• Subfamily: Dipodomyinae
• Genus: Dipodomys
Kangaroo Rat
 Characteristics of Kangaroo
rat
• 19 species
• Size : 10 to 20 cm, with a tail of equal or slightly greater length
• Weight : 35 to 180 grams
• Most distinctive features: very long hind legs & efficient
kidneys.
• Longer loop of Henle in the nephrons which permit a greater
magnitude of countercurrent multiplication , can produce urine
up to an osmolarity of almost 6,000 mosm/liter, which is five
times more concentrated than maximally concentrated human
urine at 1,200 mosm/liter.
• Because of this tremendous concentration ability, kangaroo
rats never have to drink; the water produced metabolically
within their cells during oxidation of foodstuff (food plus O 2

yields CO + H O + energy) is sufficient for their body.

2 2

• Don’t lose water by perspiring because have no sweat glands.

• Can recover 90% of the loss by using metabolic water gaining
the remaining 10% from the small amount of water in their diet.
Kangaroo rat
 Cotton Rat
• Cotton Rat Origin
• In 1996, Harlan obtained a cotton rat breeding
nucleus from National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, Maryland, and Virion Systems, Inc.
• Any member of the rodent having genus
Sigmodon.
• build their nests out of cotton, and can damage
cotton crops.
• small ears and dark coats
• North and South America
• primarily herbivores
 Cotton Rat
• Cotton rats are a little more closely related
to Norway rats.
• They belong to the same family Muridae,
but cotton rats are in a different genus,
called Sigmodon, while Norway rats are in
the genus Rattus.
• Molars of cotton rats are S-shaped when
viewed from above (genus- meaning S-tooth)
.
• Sigmodon hispidus was the first model
organism to be used in polio research.
 Biological Classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Rodentia
• Family: Cricetidae
• Subfamily: Sigmodontinae
• Tribe: Sigmodontini Wagner, 1843
• Genus: Sigmodon
Cotton rat (hispidicus)
Cotton Rat Characteristics
• Coat: color combination varies; gray,
brown, black
• Litter average: 5.5
• New World rodent: Sigmodon hispidus
• Susceptible to a wide range of human
infectious disease agents
Cotton rats as model of infectious diseases
Adenoviral vector-based gene therapy
Infectious disease pathogenesis
• Respiratory Syncytial Virus
• Herpes Simplex (Type 1 & Type 2)
• Parainfluenza Type 3
• Polio
• Measles
• Monkeypox
• Metapneumovirus
• Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• Influenza Virus
 Cotton rats as model of infectious
diseases
Bacterial infections
– Mycobyterium tuberculosis bovis
– Haemophilus influenzae
– Rickettsial infections
– Staphylococcus aureus
Fungal infections
Parasitic infections
 Hamster
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Subphylum: Vertebrata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Rodentia
• Suborder: Myomorpha
• Superfamily: Muroidea
• Family: Cricetidae
• Subfamily: Cricetinae
• Genera: Mesocricetus, Phodopus, Cricetus,
Cricetulus, Allocricetulus, Cansumys, Tscherskia
• 25 species
 Hamsters
• Stout - bodied, stubby – tailed, virtually tailless, broad - headed,
velvet-furred , cheek - pouched, burrowing and nest building
rodents.
• Origin: Middle East and Southeastern Europe
• Commonly used:
• Syrian hamster ( Mesocricetus auratus ),
known also as Golden Hamster
• Less often used:
• Chinese (Cricetus griseus )
• European hamsters (Cricetus cricetus )
• Djungarian hamster (Phodopus sungorus), also known as the
Winter white Russian dwarf hamster, Dzungarian dwarf
hamster, Russian dwarf hamsters, Siberian hamster, Winter
white hamsters, and Sapphire winter white Russian dwarf
hamster
 Hamsters characteristics
• Color and hair-type: cinnamon, cream, white, and "
teddy bear" (the long-haired variety).
• Unique anatomic feature of hamster:
• 1. cheek pouches =pouching of the oral (mouth) cavity on
both sides, extending alongside the head and neck to the
shoulders.
• Use : to store food and allow the hamster to transport food
from where it is gathered to the hamster's den or nest. The
food is then eaten later, at the hamster's leisure.
• Represents false appearnace of tumors or abscesses.
• 2. paired glands in the skin over the flanks:
• Appear as dark spots within the haircoat and are much more
obvious in males than females.
• Glands are used to mark a hamster's territory and also have
a role in sexual behavior.
Syrian/Golden hamster
Syrian/Golden hamster
Syrian/Golden hamster
 Golden Hamster
• Unusual and unique features which make them particularly
useful for certain experimental studies.
• Immuno – genetic characteristics : marked tolerance to
homologous, heterologous and human tumours, parasites,
viruses and bacteria.
• Reversible cheek pouches: allow tumour grafts from other
species, including man, to grow freely and symmetrically
without the need to induce immunosuppression.
• Dental research: form and occlusion of their molar teeth
closely resemble those of humans and the induction of lesions
is possible without fracturing of the teeth, as in rats.
• Teratology: short gestation period is advantageous
• Thermophysiology and circadian rhythm studies
• Use of Syrian hamster oocyte in assessing human
spermatozoal fertilising potential. Quantifying the effects of
various factors affecting human sperm function in vivo.
Chinese Hamster
Chinese Hamster with Pups
European hamster
 Laboratory mouse
• most widely used vertebrate species in
biomedical research
• Adv:
– short reproductive cycle,
– Short lifespan,
– small size
– low cost of maintenance
• cancer and drug research, vaccine and
monoclonal antibody preparation and
evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of
pharmaceutical products.
 Inbred mice
• Immunology
• Oncology
• Microbiology
• Biochemistry
• Pharmacology
• Physiology
• Anatomy
• Radiobiology
• offer a high degree of genetic uniformity
 Dog
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Carnivora
• Family: Canidae
• Genus: Canis
• Species: C. lupus
• Subspecies: C. l. familiaris and C. l. dingo
Beagle dog
Beagle dog
Beagle dog
Beagle dog with puppy
Mongrel dogs
 Use of dog
• dog genome is similar in size to the
genomes of humans and other mammals,
containing an estimated 2.8 billion DNA
base pairs.
• excellent model for researching numerous
diseases requiring subtle phenotyping
• many breeds of dogs are prone to genetic
diseases including cancer and autoimmune
disorders that are difficult to study in
humans
 Ferrets
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Carnivora
• Family: Mustelidae
• Genus: Mustela
• Species: M. putorius
• Subspecies: M. p. furo
Ferrets
 Dentition
• 4 types of teeth (the number includes maxillary
(upper) and mandibular (lower) teeth)
• 12 small teeth incisors (only a couple of mm)
located between the canines in the front of the
mouth. used for grooming.
• 4 canines used for killing prey.
• 12 premolar—located at the sides of the mouth,
directly behind the canines. The ferret uses these
teeth to cut through flesh, using them in a
scissors action to cut the meat into digestible
chunks and to chew food
• 6 molars (two on top and four on the bottom) at
the far back of the mouth are used to crush food.
Dentition of ferret
 Uses of ferrets
• Share many anatomical and physiological features
with humans
• virology, reproductive physiology, anatomy,
endocrinology, and neuroscience
• Experimental animal model for human influenza
• Used to study the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) virus
• Smith, Andrews, Laidlaw (1933) inoculated ferrets
intra-nasally with human naso-pharyngeal washes,
which produced a form of influenza that spread to
other cage mates.
• pathogenesis and treatment in a variety of human
disease e. g cardiovascular disease, nutrition
• Respiratory diseases such as SARS and human
influenza, airway physiology, cystic fibrosis and
gastrointestinal disease.
 Uses of ferrets
• Study all aspects of canine distemper, a
serious and fatal disease of dogs and many
forms of wildlife.
• Behavioral research: suited to certain
studies regarding learned behaviors.
• Neuroendocrinology studies : domesticated
species whose estrous cycle in the female
is easily monitored so an important animal
model for reproduction research
• Alternative to the use of dogs and non-
human primates in toxicology studies.
 Mongolian gerbil
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Rodentia
• Family: Muridae
• Subfamily: Gerbillinae
• Genus: Meriones
• Subgenus: Pallasiomys
• Biological name: Meriones unguiculatus
 Mongolian gerbil
• known as the jird, clawed jird, sand rat, or
desert rat.
• Native to China and Mongolia
• Introduced into the US in 1954.
• The most common color is the agouti,
shown here: light buff to white ventrum,
with mixed white, yellow and black hairs
dorsally, giving an overall brown fur color.
Gerbils
Mongolian Gerbil
Gerbils
Pups of Gerbil
 Behavior
• usually nonaggressive, curious and social.
• If a gerbil escapes, it does not attempt to
hide as other rodents do and will often
return to its cage.
• Nocturnal: most active in the evening with
cycles of activity during the day.
• Gerbils may form stable, monogamous
pairs and the male may assist the female in
rearing young.
• When they are excited or agitated they may
audibly stomp their large hindlimbs.
 Uses of Mongolian gerbil
• Avg life : 3-4 years
• Good capacity for temperature regulation
• High incidence of spontaneous neoplasms
with increasing frequency in aging animals (≥ 2
year). So unsuitable for chronic toxicity studies.
• Malignancies involving the ovaries, ventral
sebaceous glands, kidney, adrenal glands and
skin.
• Abdominal sebaceous gland pad in the gerbil is
androgen dependent and readily observable
 Uses
• Radiation studies: because they can tolerate much greater
whole-body radiation exposure than other animal species.
• Endocrine gland metabolism studies: one of the largest ratios
of adrenal weight to body weight of all animals.
• Experimental atherosclerosis
• Valuable animal model for stroke research. Most animal
species have a major arterial vascular supply to the base of
the brain - the Circle of Willis. This circle is incomplete in the
gerbil. Unilateral carotid ligation in the gerbil results in
ipsilateral cerebral ischemia.
• High incidence of spontaneous epileptiform seizures, usually
precipitated by a novel environment.
• Parasitology research- successfully infected with parasites
common to other species
 Uses of Gerbil
• Lipid metabolism: display lipemia and
hypercholesterolemia even on rodent diets with
standard fat composition. this results in hepatic lipidosis
and gallstones, but not in atherosclerosis.
• Reproduction studies to evaluate antifertility drugs
• Auditory research: hearing curve is closer to man's than
most common laboratory animals.
• Psychology studies: due to exploratory and territorial
marking behaviors
• Toxicology research: studies of food additives,
pesticides, industrial solvents and heavy metals.
• Infectious disease research:
 Rabbits
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• lass: Mammalia
• Order: Lagomorpha
• Family: Leporidae
• Genus: Oryctolagus Lilljeborg, 1873
• Species: O. cuniculus
 Rabbits
• small mammals
• 8 different genera in the family classified as rabbits,
including
• European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus),
• Cottontail rabbits (genus Sylvilagus; 13 species),
• Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi, an endangered
species on Amami Ōshima, Japan).
• There are many other species of rabbit, and these, along
with pikas and hares, make up the order Lagomorpha.
• two living families, the Leporidae (hares and rabbits), and
the Ochotonidae (pikas).
• The male -- buck
• The female – doe
• young rabbit is a kitten or kit
 Rabbits
• Use is declined over the last decade because of
gradual and slight decline of the use of polyclonal
antibodies produced in rabbits
• Polyclonal antibodies still required bec’ they are quicker
and easier to produce than the monoclonal antibodies
• Pyrogen testing of intravenous fluids and other technical
products intended for patients even though other test
methods without live animals are being evaluated
• Development of bio implant products such as dental
implants and devices for orthopaedic surgery
• Study of atherosclerosis after being given high - fat and
high - cholesterol diets, which lead to the development
of atherosclerotic lesions in the major arteries after
approximately 2 months.
 Rabbits
• WHHL (Watanabe heritable hyperlipidaemic):
Spontaneously mutated strain develop
atherosclerotic lesions in their blood vessels
even without the high - fat diet
• Toxicology: detection of teratogenic effects of
drugs because the embryological development
of the rabbit foetus is well known, the gestation
period is short and rabbits produce a fairly large
number of offspring
• Experimental teratology
• Cardiac surgery and disease, joint surgery,
ophthalmology and studies of hypertension
 Opossum
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Didelphimorphia
• Family: Didelphidae
• Subfamily: Didelphinae
• Genus: Monodelphis
• Species: M. domestica
 Order: Didelphimorphia
• small to medium-sized marsupials, with the largest just
exceeding the size of a large house cat, and the smallest the
size of a small mouse.
• semi-arboreal (often inhabiting and frequenting trees but not
completely arboreal =in burrows)
• omnivores (eat everything), although there are many
exceptions.
• Most members of this taxon have long snouts (projecting nose,
jaws, or anterior facial part of an animal's head.),
• a narrow braincase,
• Prominent sagittal crest (ridge of bone running lengthwise
along the midline of the top of the skull (at the sagittal suture)
of many mammalian and reptilian skulls).
• dental formula is : 5.1.3.4: 4.1.3.4
• By mammalian standards, this is a very full jaw. The incisors
are very small, the canines large, and the molars are tricuspid.
 Opossum
• Gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica)
• Small member of the Didelphidae family
• Possum = white dog
• The first marsupial to have its genome sequenced.
• Marsupiam: fold of skin, supported by epipubic
bones, containing the mammary glands into which
young ones are placed.
• Habitat: Bolivia , Brazil and Paraguay
• Frequently found in the exotic pet trade
• Biomedical research
• Also known as the Brazilian opossum, rainforest
opossum and in a research setting the laboratory
opossum.
Opossum
 Opossum
• Readily available animals
• Suited for use in studies of
– Melanoma
– Hypercholesterolemia
– Development of arteriosclerosis, angiogenesis and
corneal cancer because they are altricial,
– Developmental studies are also done on their
extremely immature young.
– An increasing number of researchers are using the
laboratory opossum and considerable baseline data
are now available.
– M. domestica are easily cared for in standard
rodent cages and can be fed standard pelleted fox
laboratory diet.
 Primates
• Primates:
• Primates should only be used in research
programmes where there is particular
need in justified research programmes
and where it can be demonstrated that the
benefits to society outweigh the harms
inflicted on the animals that are used.
 Cat (Felis catus)
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Carnivora
• Family: Felidae
• Genus: Felis
• Species: F. catus
 Primates
• The total number of primates used in
research worldwide is estimated at between
100 000 and 200 000, with 64.7% involving
Old World monkeys
• Most (up to 70 %) are used in regulatory
toxicology.
• The most common research areas for which
primates are used are:
– infectious diseases (including HIV/AIDS) 26%
– neuroscience 19 %
– biochemistry 12 %
– pharmacology/physiology 11 %
 New and old World monkeys
• New World monkeys
• E. g Squirrel monkey, marmoset
• Native to Central and South America belong
to family : Callitrichidae, Cebidae, Aotidae,
Pitheciidae, and Atelidae
• Old World monkeys
• E. g Rhesus monkey
• Native to Africa and Asia belong to family :
Cercopithecidae
 Rhesus monkey
• Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta), also
called the Rhesus Monkey
• One of the best known species of Old World
monkeys.
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Primates
• Family: Cercopithecidae
• Genus: Macaca
• Species: M. mulatta
Rhesus monkey
Rhesus monkey
 Squirrel monkey
• Squirrel monkeys and marmosets share many physical
characteristics, including small size and ease of
handling that contribute to their desirability as research
subjects.
• Squirrel monkeys ( Saimiri spp.) -- most commonly used
neotropical primates in US.
• Europe – marmoset is used
• Adv:
• The mean body weight of adult squirrel monkeys is less
than 1 kg compared with female rhesus monkeys, which
usually weigh 4 – 5 kg.
• Smaller doses necessary sp. Expensive medications
• easily adapt to laboratory housing
Squirrel monkey
 Advs. of squirrel monkey
• smaller spaces and less expensive cages req’ than larger
primates, such as macaques and baboons.
• Less risk of serious zoonotic disease transmission with
squirrel monkeys and other neotropical primates than with
macaques and other Old World primates.
• Accidental exposures from bites and scratches can be
managed in a manner similar to those from dogs and cats,
and personal protective equipment required for handling
squirrel monkeys is less extensive.
• Reduced risk to laboratory workers combined with ease of
handling, allow more procedures to be carried out without
chemical restraint or expensive handling equipment.
• Easily habituated to handling, which further reduces
stress from manipulation.
• Experimental procedures that must be performed without
sedation can be carried out relatively easily in squirrel
monkeys.
 Research models of squirrel
monkey
• Physiological studies of the effects of space
flight -- ability to tolerate high gravitational
forces
• Atherosclerosis research-
– Wild squirrel monkeys also have naturally
occurring atherosclerotic lesions; fatty streaks
and plaques in aortas resembling human
atherosclerosis in lab. monkeys
• Experimental induction of cholelithiasis
• Reproductive biology
 Research models of squirrel monkey
• malaria vaccine development studies-
important animal model
• Plasmodium spp. are host specific;
therefore the animals used for studies of
human malaria must be susceptible to the
same strains of Plasmodium that cause
disease in humans.
• The Bolivian squirrel monkey are superior
model than the Guyanese squirrel monkeys
(S. sciureus sciureus) P. Falciparum
 Research models of squirrel monkey
• One of the most susceptible non -human primate
species to experimental infection with
Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease (CJD)
• Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies
 Transgenic animals
• Genetically engineered or modified mice are
those with induced mutations, including mice
with transgenes, with targeted mutations
(knockouts) and with retroviral, proviral or
chemically induced mutations .

• Transgenic technology focuses on the

introduction or exclusion (knockouts) of
functional genetic material in the germ line of an
animal, thus changing the genetic characteristics
of an organism and its progeny.
 Transgenic animals
• The most frequently used methods for genetic
transformation of the germ line are microinjection
of DNA into the pro nucleus of fertilized oocytes
and the injection of transfected embryonic stem
(ES) cells into normal mouse blastocysts,
resulting in a subsequent generation of chimeras.
• These techniques have led to the rapid
development of a variety of animal models,
designed for the study of gene regulation, gene
expression, pathogenesis and the treatment of
human and animal diseases (eg, Alzheimer ’ s
disease, growth hormone disturbances, poliovirus
vaccine testing ).