February 6, 2003
F.D.A. Says Food Supply May Contain Altered Pigs
By ANDREW POLLACK
The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it was investigating the
possibility that genetically engineered pigs might have been illegally sold
for use as
food.
The agency said it did not consider the pigs to present any risk to public
health. Still, the incident is the latest of several that call into
question whether regulations are adequate to assure that the food supply
remains safe as plants and animals are increasingly engineered to produce
drugs and other products.
The pigs were created at the University of Illinois as part of an
experiment to see if they could be made to grow faster without injections
of antibiotics, a common practice that has raised safety concerns.
Some pigs were given a cow lactation gene to promote increased milk
production for their young, university officials said. Others were given a
synthesized gene for insulin-like growth factor 1, which was designed to
improve their digestion. Some pigs contained both genes, they said.
The F.D.A. said that from April 2001 until last month, 386 of the
offspring of the genetically engineered pigs were sold to a livestock
dealer who might have sold them for use as food. While the university
insisted that the offspring had not inherited the foreign genes and were
thus not genetically engineered, the drug agency said it could not verify
that. In any case, the offspring were not supposed to have been sold for
food without permission, the agency said.
"They were not to release them without our permission and this is their
potential violation," Dr. Lester Crawford, F.D.A. deputy commissioner,
said in a telephone news briefing, adding that the university could face
fines or be required to stop certain research.
Dr. Crawford said the agency did not consider the animals harmful because
animals have the proteins produced by the genes anyway, and there would be
no extra residue of these proteins in the meat.
Bill Murphy, associate chancellor for public affairs at the university,
said testing was thorough. He said the university had been doing this
since 1999 and had discussed its testing program with the F.D.A. in 2001.
"It was a surprise to hear them say today that they never knew those pigs
were going to market," Mr. Murphy said, adding that Illinois did not think
it had to ask for permission to sell those pigs because they were not
genetically engineered.
Mr. Murphy would not reveal the researchers involved, saying the
university feared vandalism by those opposed to genetic engineering. It
has stepped up patrols of its animal laboratories.
While genetically modified crops are now consumed, there have been no
genetically engineered animals used as food. To increase milk production,
many dairy farms inject cows with a cow growth hormone made using
genetically engineered cells, but the cows themselves are not genetically
engineered.
The drug agency is now evaluating an application for the first genetically
altered animal for use as food ? salmon engineered to grow quickly. A
report by the National Research Council last year urged the agency to be
cautious in allowing foods from transgenic animals on the market.
There does appear to have been an incident in 2001 in which meat from
genetically engineered pigs was eaten. Three transgenic pigs produced at
the University of Florida that were supposed to be destroyed were stolen
by a technician, who gave them to a butcher. Sausages made from those pigs
were served at a funeral, according to a report by The Associated Press.
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