A drug with gills? U.S. agency reshapes debate on biotech fish

Jessica Leeder
September 20, 2010
Globe and Mail 

hat is the central question swirling among consumer groups getting ready for this week’s public hearings in the United States over the safety of the genetically modified salmon that is poised to become the first gene-altered animal to enter the North American food chain.

After a 10-year struggle over how to handle the fish, which was designed in a laboratory on Canada’s Prince Edward Island to grow twice as fast as its wild counterparts, the United States Food and Drug Administration decided to regulate the salmon using rules for veterinary drugs – as opposed to new food products.

A coalition of consumer groups preparing to speak out at the hearings, which began Sunday in Rockville, Md., are concerned that the drug-evaluation process – designed for pharmaceutical companies – hasn’t allowed for sufficient scientific examination of the food-safety issues surrounding human consumption of the fish.

Owned by the publicly traded biotech firm AquaBounty Technologies, the salmon could make its way to grocery shelves within the next two years if regulators approve. The FDA said last month that the salmon appear “as safe to eat as food as other Atlantic salmon,” after a preliminary analysis of the scientific documentation provided by the biotech firm, which has been working for a decade to win approval for their creation.

If the salmon wins final FDA approval, it would effectively pave the way for other scientifically engineered animals to enter the food chain in the U.S. In Canada, AquaBounty requires Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval to sell its product, but the company is only in the very early stages of that process.

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