Exogenous proteins expressed in avians and their eggs

A transgenic avian having a transgene in the genetic material of its germ-line tissue, wherein the transgene comprises an exogenous gene and a promoter in operational and positional relationship to express transgenic poultry derived interferon-α 2b or erythropoietin, wherein said exogenous gene is expressed in an avian oviduct of said transgenic avian.

An egg of an avian species containing protein exogenous to the avian species, wherein said protein is selected from the group consisting of transgenic poultry derived interferon-α 2b and erythropoietin.

An isolated polynucleotide comprising the optimized polynucleotide sequence of human interferon-α 2b (SEQ ID NO:

• 1).

An isolated protein comprising the polypeptide sequence of transgenic poultry derived interferon-α 2b, wherein said protein is O-glycosylated at Thr-106 with Gal-NAcGal-, SA- Gal-NAcGal-,

• 5 Gal-Gal-NAcGal-, and
• 6

A pharmaceutical composition comprising the polypeptide sequence of transgenic poultry derived interferon-α 2b, wherein said protein is O-glycosylated at Thr-106 with Gal-NAcGal-, SA-Gal-NAcGal-,

• 10 Gal-Gal-NAcGal-, and
• 11

An isolated polynucleotide comprising the optimized polynucleotide sequence of human erythropoietin (SEQ ID NO:

• 3).

An MDOT promoter, comprised of elements from the ovomucoid (MD) and ovotransferrin (TO) promoters.

A vector comprising a first and second coding sequence and a promoter in operational and positional relationship to said first and second coding sequence to express said first and second coding sequence in an avian oviduct;

• and an internal ribosome entry site element positioned between the first and second coding sequence, wherein said first coding sequence codes for protein X and said second coding sequence codes for protein Y, and wherein said protein X and protein Y are deposited into the egg white of a hard shell egg.