THE method that US company Aqua Bounty plans to use to sterilise its genetically modified salmon has 鈥渋mportant鈥� weaknesses and might not prevent escaped salmon from sea cages affecting wild populations, says a report commissioned by the US Department of Agriculture. It suggests that the fast-growing GM fish should be raised only in inland farms.
And that鈥檚 not the only recommendation the biotech industry won鈥檛 like. The report also suggests that only non-food crops should be used to grow drugs or vaccines. Many companies are already working with food crops. In fact, the main conclusion of the report by the US National Research Council is that none of the biological methods proposed to prevent GM organisms escaping, multiplying in the wild or breeding with related species is foolproof. Potential confinement methods range from sterilisation to designing an organism so that it has a trait that puts it at a disadvantage in the wild, or dies in the absence of a specific chemical.
The report recommends that more than one method be used at a time, and that thorough testing should be carried out before any plant, animal or microbe is released. Even then, any decision to release a GM organism that might become invasive or cause disease should be 鈥渟crutinised with extreme caution鈥�. It is not clear if the USDA will implement any of the report鈥檚 recommendations.
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New 杏吧原创 reported in 2002 that many experts thought Aqua Bounty鈥檚 sterilisation methods were unreliable (14 September, p 12). Then as now, the company rejected the criticisms. It is waiting for the FDA to rule on whether it can sell its GM fish commercially.