4Bioengineering.com

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration decides whether transgenic salmon – and a flood of other animal products – food and no labeling requirement is to be registered. The FDA has the transgenic salmon similar products from cloned animals, which are, however, no genes introduced as safe for human consumption explained. Since it is not biologically different from normal salmon. Should be granted permission, the genetically engineered salmon to be able to sell as food, which is expected by the end of the year, then AquaBounty will equip other types of fish such as trout or prawns with the growth differential.

If the AquAdvantage ® Salmon be approved as a food, then the gateway for many other genetically modified animals will be open, which are equipped with all sorts of new features. Just find a two-day hearing instead, after which the FDA will decide on the approval and the possible labeling. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) exerts massive pressure from, for permission to obtain for the transgenic salmon and announces already that a large number of transgenic animals from fish to goats and chickens to cows and pigs are in the pipeline

The genetically modified salmon, also called Franken-food like salmon, should not multiply, because only sterile female fish are bred. Therefore there is no danger that the transgenic salmon mixed with natural populations. However, the method of sterilization is not completely effective, but only 98 percent of the salmon so that it is a risk of dissemination. Because of its rapid growth, it could be grown in large tanks in the country with the use of groundwater, so that could be ruled a danger here. That will not reassure critics, however, could eventually also be held in the salmon farms in the sea and then spread there, but the new genes.

For the rapid growth actually provided by two genes, a growth differential of the king salmon and a regulatory gene of the North American eelpout (Zoarces americanus), which controls the production of a protein for frost protection and with the growth differential is turned on. The two genes (opAFP-GHc2) are installed with plasmids in the genome. The fast-growing gene pool will not only accelerate the breeding cycles and thus ensure higher profits, but allow Aqua Bounty, according to new farming systems that are supposedly better for the fish and the environment than traditional salmon farms. It adds that the overfishing of the seas are reduced by transgenic fish. Arguments against not only the risk that the transgenic fish could spread, but that is not known whether it represents a risk for human consumption, for example, can trigger allergies.

Interestingly, when the FDA approval not require is that the transgenic salmon to be labeled. If food is not “materially different” are, this should not be required. Because cloned animals and the transgenic salmon biologically no different from “traditional” species, even if the production process differently, there is no labeling requirement. may be differences, but between “wild” and farmed salmon.

The FDA, however, also makes it difficult for manufacturers and retailers to identify non-transgenic products. This fits, of course, the biotech industry, which refers That such labels confuse only the genetically uninformed customers that will simply eat what is offered. The “success” of genetically modified plant products in the U.S. is also due to the absence of identification through the lobby. It is expected that even U.S. citizens would not necessarily opt for genetically modified products if they had the choice, they are systematically denied. Alaska has adopted the only U.S. state to pass legislation that requires the labeling of genetically modified fish.