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US FDA Ponders Frankenfish Approval

Toronto Star
March 11, 2002
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Frankenfish

BY: Don Thompson, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ruling awaited on whether gene-altered salmon is safe

The battle over genetically modified food has expanded from land to sea.
An application to sell Atlantic salmon with super-growth genes now sits
before United States federal regulators, who must decide if Frankenfish - as
its legions of critics call it - is safe for the dinner table.

A Food and Drug Administration ruling is expected to influence the fate of
dozens of other animals such as cows, chickens and pigs that could be cloned
and genetically engineered in laboratories across the United States.
The genetic tinkering is aimed at faster stocking of supermarket meat
counters and dairy sections. The engineered salmon, raised by Waltham,
Mass.-based Aqua Bounty Farms Inc., grow to market size twice as fast as
their natural cousins.

Supporters say these salmon would sell for less in supermarkets, while
easing pressure on wild or hatchery-raised fish.

Opponents fear the engineered fish will hasten the demise of naturally grown
species if allowed to crossbreed. They also argue that human health risks
have not been thoroughly studied.

While work on transplanting fish genes has been under way for about 15
years, the pending approval has brought the debate to a head. The FDA has
given no indication on when it may rule, though Aqua Bounty said it expects
a decision by 2004.

In the meantime, one state has enacted its own law while another considers
legislation. Maryland permits farming of genetically modified fish in ponds
or lakes that don't connect to other waterways - although transgenic fish in
the United States are currently only raised in tanks separated from natural
habitats.

California is considering outlawing genetically engineered fish.
A bill pending in the California Senate would ban the import, possession or
release of the fish anywhere in the state, with violators fined up to
$50,000 (U.S.).

California supermarkets and fish markets - but not restaurants - would have
to label genetically modified fish, under another pending bill.
Others, meanwhile, are tinkering with other breeds.

English researchers are working on tilapia, while Canadian researchers
concentrate on Chinook salmon. Transgenic tilapia are being considered for
approval by Cuba, and genetically altered carp by China.

New Zealand researchers already developed salmon they said might reach 550
pounds, but halted the project because of public objections.

Fast-growing tilapia could become a new staple in the developing world, said
Norman Maclean of the University of Southampton, England, School of
Biological Sciences.

Opponents say the escape of genetically engineered fish could soon drive a
wild population to extinction, citing a Purdue study showing that the
"superfish" could have a competitive advantage over native fish for food,
mates and habitat.

But the Purdue study tracked tiny Japanese fish called medaka that were
altered with a growth gene from Atlantic salmon. Environmental research so
far shows the opposite may be true for salmon, or for catfish, researchers
said.

Gene-altered Atlantic salmon swim slower, reproduce poorly, use more oxygen
and take more risks for food than their wild cousins, said Aqua Bounty
vice-president Joseph McGonigle and Auburn University fisheries researcher
Rex Dunham.

Transgenic catfish have about a 10 percent lower survival rate if they're
forced to compete with native fish, said Dunham.

"They're simply not adapted to life in the wild," said McGonigle. "We just
seem to be an easy target because fish have that gee-whiz factor."
McGonigle said there are hundreds of adult fish that are kept in tanks
inside locked buildings on Prince Edward Island. Water from the tanks is
filtered into an underground septic system and not discharged into local
waterways.

Regardless, researchers are attempting to head off the environmental debate
by promising to use only sterilized fish that couldn't reproduce even if
they escape.

Naturally grown Atlantic salmon have escaped from the ocean pens where they
are raised in Washington's Puget Sound and in waters across the border in
British Columbia. The fish are an ocean away from their normal breeding
grounds, and biologists say interbreeding with Pacific salmon is unlikely.
However, Canadian biologists have found young Atlantic salmon in two streams
on Vancouver Island, indicating that the farm-raised fish have been able to
reproduce.

Already, more than half the salmon sold in the United States is farm-raised.
Fish farming is a $40 million business in Washington, where farmers raise
about 10 million pounds a year. That's dwarfed by British Columbia, where 80
million pounds of salmon are produced.

'We just seem to be an easy target because fish have that gee-whiz factor.'
Joseph McGonigle, vice-president of Aqua Bounty Farms Inc. in Waltham, Mass.