Hopes for GE animal debate to move forward under Obama

The Center for American Progress and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) are convening a discussion on the commercialization of GE animals on Monday in Washington.

A genetically engineered animal is one that contains an rDNA construct that’s intended to give the animal a new trait or characteristic, such as resistance to a particular disease.

Food safety is a major concern with GE food animals, however, the stumbling blocks for the developers are more likely be whether there is an actual need for these animals in the first place, according to Gregory Jaffe, director, CSPI Biotechnology Project.

Jaffe told FoodNavigator-USA.com: “I think many of their products will not have major food safety or environmental issues that would prevent them from moving forward, but they could have tremendous social and economic or policy concerns attached to them.”​

He said developers really need to convince the public that there are benefits to these animals and gave the example of milk.

Jaffe added: “We don’t have a shortage of milk, so why produce any GE cows that produce more milk that may not be what we need? ​

“But if you have a cow resistant to BSE, that will be really beneficial because it produces a safer food supply.” ​

Jaffe said the current administration has “clearly promoted technology like GE foods and have not always taken the consumer perspective into account”​. He hopes that the new administration will be more inclusive of all stakeholders.

FDA guidelines​

In September the FDA released draft guidelines on the regulation of GE animals in the marketplace, which set out the requirements and recommendations for producers of GE animals and products derived from them.

The agency is seeking public comments on the guidance until 18 November.

The FDA claims that GE animals include food-use animals with new traits such as improved nutrition, faster growth or lower emission levels of environmentally harmful substances such as phosphate in their manure.

GE animlas are not to be confused with animal clones which are copies of individual conventionally-bred animals, and do not contain any rDNA constructs. However, an animal clone can be GE (i.e., have an rDNA construct introduced into it), and a GE animal can be reproduced by cloning.