Pass the rabbit milk please!

[degrassi]

Saw this today and thought i'd share since its rabbit related.I"ve heard of using goats and other larger livestock for producing drugs but never rabbits.

It reminded me of the simpson episode where they were milking the rats, lol.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091201-rabbits-milk-human-protein-drug.html

 

[mardigraskisses]

HOORAY FOR SCIENCE!

...I think. :?

 

[kirsterz09]

well this is good news for people who suffer from that illness and if it is not causing harm to the bunnies by just extracting milk, then it seems ok but, it's the conditions that the bunnies will be kept in, that if unkempt will make people question the necessity of this drug source.

 

[missyscove]

We've been "pharming" for years now, mostly using transgenic goats and cows.
Trust me, those animals are expensive to make so they do their best to give them the absolute best care. Stressed animals do not perform well and without proper care they won't produce much milk.
Very cool though. With meat rabbits becoming rarer in the US, there hasn't been too much rabbit research lately, perhaps something like this could spark more.

 

[naturestee]

Wierd. I thought they usually used goats. Maybe they can't make this particular protein?

Missyscove is right that we've been "pharming" for some time. When I did testing for a blood donation center, some of the primary test kit ingredients were from goats and chickens and we also used tiny amounts of rabbit blood in one test.

 

[tonyshuman]

I'm pretty sure it's easier to do the insertion of the gene into rabbits than goats. We have a lot more experience doing genetic manipulation in rabbits than goats, at least as far as I know.

I think it's pretty awesome that they can do this! I'm sure they'll treat the rabbits very well, although I wonder if it causes stress on them to be lactating all the time. Cows seem pretty well adapted to it, but rabbits usually don't have to feed their young for as long as cows do, so they may not be good to produce milk constantly.

 

[Brandy456]

Thats very... random