First transgenic farm animal for human consumption is being considered to be approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in United States. AquAdvantage Salmon is genetically engineered for rapid growth with two stretches of foreign DNA, a growth hormone gene with an antifreeze protein promoter. These Frankensalmon hold a 20-fold growth advantage over non-genetically modified salmon.
Both Food and Drug Administration staff and the salmon's maker, Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc, have said the fast-growing fish appears to be the same as normal Atlantic salmon and poses little threat to the environment or diners. But some consumer advocates, environmentalists and others have protested the move. They say there is not enough data to show that eating the genetically modified salmon does not cause side effects such as allergic reactions or that accidental escape will not harm other fish.
The FDA has already allowed modified animals as pets or to help produce biologic medicines. Genetically engineered vegetables such as corn have been on the market for years.
Aqua Bounty Chief Executive Officer Ronald Stotish told the FDA's panel of outside experts that approval could help provide the "healthy kind of diet that Americans are used to" amid threats from overfishing and increased demand. Without it, "it's hard to imagine how we'll meet the protein needs of the developing population over the next 20 to 30 years."
Indeed, the FDA notes evidence of "increased frequency of skeletal malformations, and increased prevalence of jaw erosions and multisystemic, focal inflammation" in the tissues of AquAdvantage Salmon. However, the FDA dismisses these findings as "within the range observed in rapid growth phenotypes of non-genetically engineered Atlantic salmon." In other words, the abnormalities they found were no worse than those currently farmed salmon for accelerated growth through other means.
Up to 80 percent of factory-farmed salmon in Chile have suffered from “screamer disease,” in which severe facial disfigurements lock their jaws permanently agape. Whist, in Norway, “humpback” spinal compression deformities have been found in 70 percent of salmon operations. In fact, these abnormalities have been linked to the physiological stress of intensive production.
Ironically, Aqua Bounty argues that the list of health disorders their fish suffer from could be seen as an advantage in that "any escapees from containment would be less capable of surviving". These genetically modified fish grow at such a rate that the metabolic demands might help preclude their survival in nature, make them less likely to create ecological havoc should they escape into the wild.
Concern about transgenic farm animals doesn't end at the waters edge. The FDA's logic for evaluating biotechnology could mean approval for transgenic calves born so freakishly huge that they can only be extracted via Caesarian section. There are breeds of such genetically defective "double-muscled" cattle that have been created. Chickens have already been bred for such rapid muscling that billions suffer in chronic pain every year in the United States from skeletal disorders that impair their ability to even walk and so a transgenic avian cripple would fit right in using the FDA's rationale. Right now, hens lay so many eggs that they risk prolapse, laying their own uterus. Up to a quarter of dairy cows are clinically lame and turkeys are now so top-heavy that they are physically incapable of mating.
All of these abominations exist today are the products of conventional techniques of genetic manipulation.
We might not know that demand of protein source for the developing population over the next 20 to 30 years could be solved by Frankenfood, but definitely, the creation of transgenic farm animals is giving agribusiness an additional tool to stress animals to their biological limits at the expense of their health and welfare.
Ridiculously, FDA shall come out with the rationale that these Frankenanimals are just "an invention" of biotechnology, nothing more like manufacturing of machine or electronic gadgets. Would you fight for the welfare of your iPhone or Playstation?