The NY Times reports AquaBounty GMO salmon “contains a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon and a genetic switch from ocean pout, an eel-like creature”.
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AquaBounty, a USA company, has already gained permission from environmental officials in Canada to harvest GM Atlantic salmon fish eggs at its facilities in Prince Edward Island.
Activist groups have also expressed concerns that genetically modified foods may pose risks to the environment or public health. They worry it could cause human allergies and the eventual decimation of the natural salmon population if it escapes into the wild. ABC News toured the company’s Panama facility in 2012, where a typical Atlantic salmon is dwarfed by the genetically altered fish.
“In the case of the AquAdvantage Salmon, the FDA did not find any such differences”, it said. “Consumers who want information about the GE salmon should be able to obtain it, either on the label, in printed materials associated with the product, on a website, or through other communications”, said the group’s Biotechnology Director Gregory Jaffe. According to the report, the recombinant DNA (rDNA) construction introduces a trait that is capable of making the company’s salmon grow faster. Growing salmon in tanks on land reduces water pollution associated with fish farming in the ocean or marine inlets. “We’re also very concerned about the lack of transparency for consumers on grocery store shelves”.
Several retailers have said that they will not carry the fish, including Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. However, the FDA’s first ever approval of a “GM animal” has been met with fierce criticism.
“The review process by FDA was inadequate, failed to fully examine the likely impacts of the salmon’s introduction, and lacked a comprehensive analysis”.
AquaBounty’s extensive containment system makes it “extremely unlikely that the fish could escape and establish themselves in the wild”, the agency says.
The salmon has been modified with genes from two other edible fish that allow it to produce growth hormone year long and reach market weight in about half the time taken by conventional salmon.
“There’s no place on our dinner plates for genetically engineered fish”, Lisa Archer of Friends of the Earth told the Associated Press. The FDA first announced that it would consider approving genetically engineered salmon for consumption in August 2010.
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Because there are no real differences between a modified salmon and a normal one, the FDA will not require packaging labels that say it is genetically engineered.
