Transgenic Livestock for Food Production , Introduction

Our societies currently face many big challenges: how to feed the increasing world population, how to balance the competing demands for land and water, how to mitigate climate change, and how to maintain healthy lifestyle into old age. Among other technologies, the animal genetic revolution offers several strategies to mitigate these challenges and provide benefit for mankind. While achieving this, we need to maintain and where appropriate increase the welfare and existence of animals we use in agriculture and biomedicine . Transgenic technologies, the ability to add or transfer or change the genetic makeup of an animal, can contribute. In the following ten entries, this premise is presented in detail. Why the entries were selected and how they complement each other while giving an overview of the field of transgenic animal biotechnology is described below.

The cornerstone of biological research is the ability to experimentally alter gene...