Hi people - Even now the regular caged Atl. Salmon eat 3-7 pounds of
people-edible fish to grow one pound of marketable fish for human
consumption. These monsters with growth hormone genes will outcompete
natural, wild fish for food when they escape (which many inevitably
will). And do we want to be eating creatures with enhanced growth
hormones? What will that do to us?
Call for a moratorium on all g-e life forms until we, the people of
Earth, discuss and decide whether or if they should be created and for
what reasons.
- Nancy Oden
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/050100sci-gm-animal.html
May 1, 2000
Altered Salmon Lead the Way to the Dinner Plate, but Rules Lag
By CAROL KAESUK YOON
REDESIGNING NATURE
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Issue in Depth: Genetic Modification Debate </library/national/science/health/gm-index.html>
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Join a Discussion on Genetically Engineered Food <http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?13@@.f0a8abb>
ith quaint fishing villages dotting its shores and farming still one of its mainstays, the pastoral landscape of Prince Edward Island seems an unlikely place to encounter one of the most modern creatures on earth. Yet it is in the tanks at Aqua Bounty Farms on the island off New Brunswick, Canada, that hundreds of truly novel fish swim: schools of genetically engineered salmon that await approval for sale in the United States.
These fish look like Atlantic salmon found in groceries around the world, but for their age they are enormous. Endowed with foreign genes that produce growth hormones, they grow to market size -- about seven pounds -- in 18 months, twice as fast as normal salmon.
Experts on the biotechnology industry predict that these fish will be the first genetically modified animal to make it onto American dinner plates, alongside genetically engineered vegetables like corn and potatoes, which have been available for several years.
Elliot Entis, president of A/F Protein Inc., the biotech company that owns Aqua Bounty Farms, said that the company already had orders for 15 million eggs and would be ready to ship them next year, should they receive federal approval. Approval is also being sought to sell the fish in Canada.
A menagerie of other genetically modified animals is in the works, promising what biotech backers say will be advantages like cheaper and more nutritious food. Borrowing genes from various creatures and implanting them in others, scientists are creating fast-growing trout and catfish, oysters that can withstand viruses, and an "Enviropig," whose feces are less harmful to the environment because they contain less phosphorus.
Scientists are also developing a pig that makes a leaner pork chop, one of the first genetically modified animals that would offer direct benefits to consumers and something biotech advocates hope will make the marketing of genetically modified foods easier.
Mr. Entis and colleagues describe their fast-growing fish as part of a blue revolution in aquaculture that could feed more people more efficiently and more cheaply.
But critics and even some Clinton administration officials say that genetically engineered creatures are threatening to slip through a net of federal regulations that has surprisingly large holes.
While food safety issues should be addressed, some scientists say, the bigger concern is the environmental threats posed by genetically modified animals like the salmon. For example, a recent study showed that populations of wild fish could, in theory, be wiped out by mating with certain kinds of genetically engineered fish, should they escape. In addition, there is the possibility of unpredictable environmental disruptions, like those that occur when non-native species invade ecosystems, as the zebra mussels have the Hudson River.
Yet United States regulators interviewed could not point to any federal laws specifically governing the use or release of genetically engineered animals.
"This is a very big hole," said Dr. Rebecca Goldburg, senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, a group that has been highly critical of the biotech industry and the federal regulators. "There's nothing clearly on the books. There are no regulations about what you can and can't do."
A/F Protein
Genetically altered salmon, right, and their puny siblings, at 14 months.
Instead, federal agencies seeking to regulate genetically engineered organisms are stretching regulations written for other purposes to what critics describe as surprising lengths.
So far, for example, only the Food and Drug Administration appears to have any authority over the new salmon, which the agency claimed by designating the fish's foreign genes and the growth hormone they produce as a drug for animals.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture, the two other agencies overseeing genetically modified organisms, have bowed out of the salmon case, a decision that many with an interest in the issue regret. The F.D.A. is likely to be rigorous in examining food safety, these critics say, but the agency is less experienced in reviewing environmental risks.
"The F.D.A. is not qualified to evaluate the ecological risks of engineered fish," said Dr. Jane Rissler, senior staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group that is a longtime critic of biotech regulation. "We should be concerned that the environment will be at risk."
John Matheson, senior regulatory review scientist at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine, defended the agency's ability to conduct environmental reviews, saying that it routinely investigates the environmental impact of new drugs.
"We look at the environmental impacts of approving an antibiotic, how much is released into the environment, what does it do," Mr. Matheson said. "I don't have any more discomfort about this than reviewing other animal drugs for environmental impacts."
Yet other administration officials said increasing concern over the handling of ecological risks by the three federal agencies that monitor biotech organisms had prompted consideration of a review of the current regulatory framework.
"We need a system that lets us check things beforehand, that shifts the burden of proof onto those that would introduce them," said Dr. William Brown, science adviser to the secretary of the Department of the Interior. "I don't think the potential impacts on nature have been thought through as well as they should be."
FOOD SAFETY
Agency Cites Low Levels of Growth Hormone
r. Choy Hew and Dr. Garth Fletcher were among the first researchers to genetically engineer fish when they inserted two foreign genes into Atlantic salmon in 1989. One gene, taken from a chinook salmon, produces growth hormone. A second gene, taken from an ocean pout, a distant relative of salmon, functions to keep the first gene constantly producing its hormone.
Finally, last year, after a decade of genetic tinkering, researchers had a reliable breeding stock of salmon that could grow up to six times faster than normal.
Company officials are quick to point out that the new fish produces no more growth hormone than normal salmon. The reason the fish grows faster, Dr. Fletcher said, is that the fish produces the hormone year-round, unlike normal salmon, which produce it only in warm-weather months.
In fact, levels of growth hormone in the fish are so low, Mr. Matheson said, that the Food and Drug Administration will not require one particular set of tests -- feeding the salmon to rodents -- that are typical for new drugs for animals.
"You can't choke rats with enough salmon to cause an effect other than choking," he said. Some scientists not involved with the company also pointed out that fish growth hormone was unlikely to have an effect on humans.
The salmon do not even grow to be unusually large, Dr. Fletcher said, as even 7-year-old salmon at AquAdvantage have never weighed more than 17 pounds, large but far from record-breaking for the species.
Mr. Entis also said that the new fish taste just like other salmon grown on farms.
Some scientists not involved with the company also played down food safety concerns but said it would be important to know, for example, if the foreign growth hormone triggered increased production of other compounds, like insulinlike growth factors. Mr. Entis of A/F Protein said the company had been asked to look into that question and others as part of the continuing Food and Drug Administration review.
Continue to Part Two </library/national/science/050100sci-gm-animal2.html>
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