A crustacean or rotifer is infected with a recombinant infectious virus
that expresses a protein exogenous to the virus. The genome of the
crustacean or rotifer itself remains unaltered. Crustacean, rotifer,
insect, or viral promoters drive the transcription of a gene inserted
into the recombinant virus genome, and the virus replicates in the
crustacean or rotifer cell cytoplasm. The infected crustacean or rotifer
can be provided directly to humans or non-human animals, or, following
production and harvest of the crustaceans or rotifers, purified
recombinant protein or polypeptide can be provided. Large quantities of
biopharmaceuticals can be produced rapidly and inexpensively using this
production system.