Issues in Animal Sciences

1
Issues in Animal Sciences

• Food safety
• Environment
• Use of biotechnology
• Animal welfare and animal rights
• Diet health
• Marketing globalization
• Animal Sciences 600

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How Do Issues Arise to the Public Arena?

• Advanced by Special Interest Groups
• Small political party, narrow agenda and concerns
• Socioeconomic status??
• Upper middle class may have a bias view from
  the masses
• Level of concern over economic aspect of proposed
  changes? e.g. harvest of horses for meat?
  Gestation crates for swine?
• Cheapest food in the world in the USA
• Desire to bring agenda to public focus vs
  prevention of this by other side

3
How Do Issues Arise to the Public Arena?

• Animal, consumer and environmental groups
• Well funded, activist in nature
• Require high media visibility to send their
  message to the masses
• Some questionable practices staged events,
  incomplete or misleading information
• Agriculture out voted (5M vs 240million)
• Must deal with issues dictated by special
  interest groups

4
Issues in Animal Sciences

• Animal welfare and animal rights range of
  groups
• Exploitation - abuse
• Use animal industry
• Welfare concern for animal treatment/well-being,
  humane societies, welfare agencies humane
  treatment
• Rights animals have intrinsic rights like
  humans
• reproduce??
• Liberation no work or produce for humans
  free!

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Issues in Animal Sciences

• Purpose of this exercise
• Think for yourself.
• Dont be swayed by a few chosen pictures, partial
  quotes, etc.
• Dont let yourself be manipulated by special
  interest groups.
• Before you decide your position on any issue, get
  all of the facts.
• Research something besides a special interest
  groups information it is designed to make you
  believe their position.
• Make an educated decision regarding your
  position.

• Do you think the person that leads PETA is
• Ignorant, out of touch with reality, or an
  idealistic radical
• A political animal that has decided they will
  destroy animal agriculture, research, etc.. and
  make a good living doing it.
• Perhaps misguided, but one that sincerely cares
  about the welfare of animals and helps ensure
  that they do not suffer
• Right on! and doing a great job.
• Dont know enough to choose on s 1-4.

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Issues in Animal Sciences

• BIOTECHNOLOGY
• Recombinant products for animals bST
• Transgenic Animals
• Bioreactors to produce pharmaceuticals Gene
  Pharming
• Sources of transplant organs
  Xenotransplantation
• Animals with enhanced nutritional or production
  characteristics future goal!
• Cloning

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Gene Pharming

• Compounds produced
• Alpha-1-antitrypsin
• Human serum albumen
• Human clotting factors
• Human-like milk from cattle

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Xenotransplantation

• Transplant into humans
• Animal cells
• Animal tissues
• Animal organs
• Active areas of research
• Bone marrow from baboons
• Liver cells from pigs
• Hearts from pigs
• Brain tissue from pigs
• Artificial blood from cows

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CLONING

• Very useful and versatile technique
• Production of identical research animals
• Propagation of exceptional animals

10
Issues in Animal Sciences

• Use of Biotechnology
• public perception moral ethical dilemmas,
  human health concerns

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Issues in Animal Sciences

• Environment
• Waste management and water quality
• Animals, sewage, landfills, septic systems,
  industrial
• Pathogens
• gt900,000 water borne infections/year
• 900 deaths each year
• Animals, sewage, landfills, septic systems
• Steroids, heavy metals
• Infertility (human birth control, other sources?)

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Issues in Animal Sciences

• Environment Continued
• Nitrates, phosphorous, pesticides, herbicides
• Fertilizer, manure, sludge, crop production
• Major sources of pesticides, fertilizer runoff???
• Global warming is it real? is it natural or
  induced?
• Use of resources in other countries??
• Driving to Macs vs. hamburger production?
• Contributions from other countries?

13
Issues in Animal Sciences

• Land Use
• Grazing, Endangered Species vs Property Rights
• If you support endangered species act do you
  support eminent domain? Are they even analogous?
• Urban Sprawl Farmland Preservation?

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Issues in Animal Sciences

• Food safety
• antibiotic, pesticide residues
• drug resistant bacteria
• bacteria (salmonella E.Coli 0157H7, Listeria)
• county fairs more bacteria or more susceptible?
• growth promoting hormones - EU
• Irradiation
• BSE

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Issues in Animal Sciences

• Marketing globalization
• concentration integration
• export opportunities
• value-based marketing

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Integrated Systems Approach to Agriculture
Model for all work in the College of Agriculture
at The Ohio State University