Novel compositions for the production of the light and heavy chains of an antibody are provided. These novel compositions are also used to produce germline transgenic birds that can successfully pass the transgene encoding the antibody to their offspring. The compositions comprise components of vectors, such as a vector backbone, a promoter, and a gene of interest that encodes the light or heavy chain of an antibody, and the vectors comprising these components. In certain embodiments, these vectors are transposon-based vectors. Also provided are methods of making these compositions and methods of using these compositions for the production of the light and heavy chains of an antibody. In one embodiment, the antibody is a human monoclonal antibody.