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The USDA and Canada’s CFIA are currently reviewing GMO Arctic Golden and Arctic Granny apples, with both expected to be approved for cultivation in 2014.

However, a Sustainable Pulse source revealed Saturday that an EU Directive regarding the antibiotic marker gene Kanamycin, found in the GMO Arctic Apples, could threaten not just North American future GMO Arctic Apple exports but the whole of the North American apple export market to the EU. It could also threaten exports to China, Russia, Mexico and Costa Rica due to similar regulations.

Kanamycin (also known as kanamycin A) is an aminoglycoside bacteriocidal antibiotic, available in oral, intravenous, and intramuscular forms, and used to treat a wide variety of infections. The Kanamycin gene, used as a marker in genetic engineering, confers cross resistance against other clinically important Kanamycin-related antibiotics. In the treatment of serious infections, many of the most important other antibiotics damage the cell walls of bacteria in such a way that the toxins inside the bacteria are released into the body, which may be a serious threat in a condition of great weakness. The Kanamycin-related aminoglykoside antibiotics don’t cause such release and are therefore especially valuable in severe life-threatening infections. It would be an important drawback if the resistance to these antibiotics would increase.

The use of Kanamycin as the marker gene in GMO Arctic Apples means that EU regulators may refuse to allow imports of not just GM Apples from North America but also all North American apples over cross-pollination and gene transfer fears.

In the EU directive below it is clearly stated that by 31 December 2008 all GM crops which contain antibiotic marker genes were phased out due to adverse effects on human health and the environment.