5-Animals: Aqua Bounty plans to introduce GE salmon in 2008

[GENET <coordination@genet-info.org>]

------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  Salmon That Grow Up Fast
SOURCE: Business Week, USA
        www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_03/b3967111.htm
DATE:   16 Jan 2006

------------------ archive:  http://www.genet-info.org/ ------------------


Salmon That Grow Up Fast

If Elliot Entis can win FDA approval for his quick-growing fish, he'll
pave the way for other food companies working on genetically modified animals

Elliot Entis doesn't much like to think of himself as a pioneer. And
aside from a single framed photo of a salmon hanging on the wall, Entis'
tiny office in Waltham, Mass., offers barely a hint of what has been a
labor of love since 1992. His company, Aqua Bounty Technologies, has
created a breed of salmon that grows twice as fast as normal farmed
salmon, because they carry part of the genetic code of another type of
fish, the ocean pout.

Aqua Bounty is in the final stages of a five-year battle to get the
product approved by the Food & Drug Administration, which has yet to
approve any transgenic animal for human consumption. If the company
succeeds, Entis' salmon could become the first such product on the
market. He hopes to achieve that milestone by 2008.


TOUGH QUESTIONS.

Entis' salmon grow so fast because of a change made to one of the
roughly 40,000 genes in their DNA. In normal salmon, the gene that
controls the production of growth hormone is activated by light, so the
fish generally grow only during the sunny summer months. But by
attaching what's known as a "promoter sequence" -- part of a specific
gene -- from the pout, Aqua Bounty ended up with salmon that make growth
hormone all year round.

These genetically modified fish won't look or taste any different to
consumers, but they could make an ocean of difference to fish farmers.
Entis estimates they'll allow the average salmon producer to cut costs
35% per fish while doubling output. "It's like improving the mileage in
your car," he explains.

While it may sound simple, the FDA has come up with a litany of tough
questions for Entis. The agency has asked for a complete description of
the transgene, a map of exactly where it sits in the salmon's
chromosome, and proof that the location of the tweaked gene won't change
as it's passed down from generation to generation. The agency needs that
information to ensure consistency in the final product and to guarantee
that the fish remain healthy.


MATING SEASON.

Aqua Bounty's toughest challenge has been to allay fears that if the
supersalmon escape into the ocean, they could start mating with their
wild counterparts, ultimately wiping out the world's entire population
of wild salmon. The company may decide only to seek approval for sterile
fish or for fish that are grown indoors -- making such scenarios
impossible. Still, to answer concerned environmentalists, AquaBounty has
been collecting data that predict what might happen if their fish escaped.

Some studies, including independent research done at Purdue University,
use a combination of controlled experiments with laboratory fish and
mathematical modeling to determine what characteristics a genetically
modified fish would need to have to overtake wild populations. For one,
male transgenic fish would need to be bigger than wild salmon to gain
any advantage during mating season.

AquaBounty's fish grow faster, but not bigger, than regular salmon, and
they're all female anyway. All in all, says Entis, "our fish would be
lousy survivors [in the wild]." The company predicts that fewer than 1%
of genetically modified salmon that escape would survive to adulthood in
the wild.


SCRAPING BY.

As is the case with most new ideas in biotech, though, some critics
remain unconvinced. Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation of
Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., and a longtime critic of genetic
modification, is afraid that mixing up genes from different species
could have unpredictable consequences over the long run.

"We know genes cross borders, but what we have here is a radical
speeding up of that journey," he says. "We're introducing so many
radical changes into the physiology of the ecosystem. The environmental
implications could be enormous."

If the pioneers of genetically modified meat fail to allay such fears,
their inventions may face a tough marketing challenge. Entis says the
fish farmers who would ultimately adapt Aqua Bounty's technology are
reluctant to commit to it until the FDA weighs in. The privately held
company is scraping by on funding from private investors, as well as
revenues from other fish-related products. But other inventors of
genetically modified food are desperate for financial support from meat
producers, and they're coming up empty-handed. Three scientists at the
University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, for example, have been looking
for a financial partner to help bring a new type of pig through the
regulatory process and to market.


COSTLY ENZYME.

Their Enviropig has been genetically modified to produce less
phosphorous in its manure than normal pigs do. The creature could solve
one of the biggest environmental threats in modern agriculture: so many
pigs producing so much phosphorous that the chemical is building up in
soil and running off into groundwater.

Pork producers cut the phosphorous output by feeding pigs an enzyme
called phytase, which chews up some phosphorous while it's still in
their stomachs. But adding phytase can be costly. Enviropigs are born
with the ability to produce phytase naturally in their saliva.

Still, the fears about genetic modification seem to outweigh the near-
universal consensus that the pork industry needs to fix the phosphorous
problem. "What we're hearing from large producers is they don't want
their trademarks tainted with genetically modified animals because
consumers aren't ready for it," said Cecil W. Forsberg, professor of
microbiology at Guelph and one of the Enviropig's inventors, in an
interview at the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.


FACT VS. MYTH.

He fears that if they can't raise money to advance the project soon, the
Enviropig will become an endangered species. "In view of ... the
increasing cost of energy, which [increases] the cost of adding phytase
enzyme to the pig ration, we would like to think that the industry will
begin showing interest in pigs that bypass the need for the third most
expensive nutrient in their diet," he griped in a follow-up e-mail.

To win the confidence of consumers, pioneers of transgenics will have to
educate the public on the facts vs. the myths of genetic modification.
Entis is trying to do his part. Whenever he hears someone say
"genetically modified," he urges them to use the term "advanced hybrid"
instead. His reasoning: Crossing a salmon with a pout is really no
different from selectively breeding desirable traits into cows to make a
tastier prime rib. There are plenty of examples in the fish industry as
well. The sunshine bass, for example, is a cross between a fresh water
white bass and salt water striped bass. "I can tell you, they don't meet
in nature," Entis says. "That's crossing the species barrier."


ROAD MAP.

Like many entrepreneurs in the field of transgenics, Entis is eagerly
awaiting the FDA's guidance on milk and meat derived from cloned
animals. The agency is expected to declare that products from cloned
animals are safe, and that could provide a boost of confidence for
transgenics-derived foods. If Entis succeeds in gaining the FDA's
confidence, he plans to release all the data from the studies his
company conducted to get the approval -- in the hopes it will provide a
road map for other companies working on transgenic animals.

Aqua Bounty is now completing what Entis believes will be the final
major study it needs to do to meet the FDA's food-safety requirements.
The study is designed to prove the modified fish don't touch off
allergic reactions any more than normal salmon do. Entis says he has
come to accept the long approval process. "We want the public to accept
this, and they won't if there's not an air-tight review." That review
will likely pave the regulatory pathway for all the transgenics critters
yet to come.




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