For instance, in the amazing arena, if your researching arthritis and need some furry little experimental animals with that malady it will run you close to $200, each! Two pairs (I don't know if these are mating pairs) of epileptic mice can cost 10 times that. You want three blind mice? That’ll run you about $250. And for your own custom mouse, with the genetic modification of your choosing, expect to pay as much as $100,000.
WOW!!!!!
And not only that! With proper manipulation... either by man or nature... a set of mouse genes can produce an animal with just about any human ailment, or a reasonable facsimile of said ailment. Strains of mice that succumb to alzheimer's disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and just about anything you can think of are being used to study both the illnesses themselves and potential treatments. As many as 25 million mice are now used in experiments each year.
We are talk'n BIG BUSINESS here. And just what is this business... mouse farms. Yep, mouse farms. You've probably heard of pig farms and horse farms and even fat farms... but that's different, mouse farms are pretty high tech places.
Getting furry little experimental animals is much more than just putting Mr. and Mrs. Brown (mouse) together. That's way too old fashioned and the experimental mouses genetic makeup can't be left to "natural" selection in most cases.
The mouse manufacturers like The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, who ships more than 2 million a year and Charles River Laboratories of Wilmington, Mass., who makes about $500 million annually selling and caring for lab animals, most of them mice. These "farmers" have an extremely challenging enterprise that requires cutting-edge technology and a mastery of difficult logistics.
Are we men or are we mice... well, it's kinda hard to tell. The mouse gained new significance not long after the completion of the human genome project in 2001 and the DNA sequence of mice the following year. Would you believe when they put the two genetic codes side-by-side and found the genes of mice and humans are virtually identical. 
I have to say the little guy to the right here does have a resemblance to my cousin Elmer. Beady eyes, big nose, needs a shave and the cutest little ears.
Over decades, researchers created inbred lines of lab mice by repeatedly mating siblings to one another until every member of the strain was virtually the same genetically. That standardization made it possible for a researcher in Japan to replicate the experiment of a colleague in California without having to worry about genetic variation affecting the result.
It also gave each strain a distinct character that made it preferable for certain experiments. One strain would be prone to say diabetes and another to obesity. Name your disease and there is probably a mouse strain to match.
In the "olden days" strains of lab mice were created either by selective breeding or by chance. If a sharp-eyed lab technician or graduate student spotted an unusual animal that turned out to have a novel mutation, a new line would be produced in order to study that particular gene.
Now the the mouse farmers create their own mutations, inserting or deleting genes at will. These mouse farmers, located around the world, can do amazing things and even some very weird things. The award for sheer weirdness goes to Xenogen, an Alameda, Calif. outfit, that can hitch the gene of interest to one that codes for the protein that makes fireflies glow. The result: Whenever and wherever the gene being studied switches on inside the mouse, it glows.
Depending on the specific genetic manipulation, the cost to create a custom mouse is usually in the tens of thousands of dollars. Once the line has been established, individual animals can run into the hundreds of dollars.
Researchers generally think the cost is well worth what you get in return, the ability to see how a disease affects a mammal or how a drug is going to work. While the individual mouse will pay the ultimate price hopefully mankind will reap the benefits of their contribution.
So the next time you got to set the mouse trap........
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