1. Large litters of precosial offspring suitable for rearing independently from their mothers. |
2. Offspring can be reared on bovine colostrum/milk and milk-based formulae used for infants. |
3. Similar nutritional requirements, digestive system, gut flora and respiratory system to that in humans. |
4. Similar or identical contagion to those that infect humans. |
5. Defense proteins, peptides, cytokines and chemokines homologous to those in other mammals. |
6. Light chain repertoire and κ:λ expression similar to humans disparate from that of rodents or other hoofed mammals. |
7. TCRVβ and TCRVγδ repertoires and loci arrangements similar to humans. |
8. Long gestation offering a large window for studying fetal development. |
9. Amenable to in utero inoculations and certain types of fetal manipulations. |
10. User-friendly VH system allowing for quantitation of repertoire diversification. |