Transgenic cow research branded a “disaster”

Official documents on New Zealand government transgenic cow experiments reveal a disturbing story of illness, death and deformity

Note how one of the scientists working on the GM animal program uses the animal welfare problems it has caused (item 1 below) to plug the new and supposedly improved technology of gene editing.



However, Chinese scientists have found problems in attempting to “gene-edit” human genomes, including off-target mutations and failure of the target genome to incorporate the new genetic material.

Download the new report on GM cow research from GE Free New Zealand here.



1. Transgenic cow research branded a “disaster”

2. Report uncovers dismal record of GE animal experiments in New Zealand

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1. Transgenic cow research branded a “disaster”

Radio New Zealand News, 22 October 2015

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/287773/transgenic-cow-research-branded-a-'disaster'



* Opponents of genetic engineering research say official documents on government transgenic cow experiments reveal a disturbing story of illness, death and deformity.



GE Free New Zealand has released a report covering 15 years of AgResearch trials using 60 cows bred to express certain transgenic proteins, including a human protein, in their milk.



It is authored by Claire Bleakley, president of GE Free New Zealand, who told Morning Report that the animals were suffering inordinately from chronic illness, unexplained deaths and severe deformities as a result of the foreign DNA inserted into the embryos.



"[The report] is a catalogue of disasters. AgResearch has constantly said that there is no problem, and that the animals suffer from basically normal farming disorders. When you look at this, these animals are suffering inordinately - from sterility, from chronic illness, from sudden death," she said.



She said AgResearch hadn't been honest about the pain the research has caused for animals but that the problems went beyond animal welfare: "This is a problem for the moral and ethical values for New Zealand and how it does research."



Of the 60 cows, 14 are still alive.



GE Free said the deformities have included animals born with no bladder, club feet and fused necks, many of whom lived for only a few hours.



The group said it got the details through Official Information Act requests to AgResearch and from the Crown institute's own reports.



Dr David Wells, a principal scientist in the reproductive team at AgResearch, said that there were issues, but that the work was promising.



"We acknowledged that there are animal welfare concerns with the current technology - rather the methods we've used to generate those embryos. Many of the deformities that have incurred [are due to] incorrect programming.



"Through cloning, they are occurring at a higher incidence," he told Morning Report.



He said that the report was one-sided, and AgResearch did what it could to prevent animals suffering, including having a dedicated veterinarian and animal husbandry team.



Dr Wells said the work was cleared ahead of time by an ethics committee, but that they were moving away from cloning and so would hopefully have a smaller margin of error.



"We are very excited with the prospects of gene editing - some of that has the opportunity to inject these tools into fertilised zygotes, and therefore we don't need to use the cloning technology and we would expect better outcomes."

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2. Report uncovers dismal record of GE animal experiments in New Zealand

GE-Free New Zealand, 23 Oct 2015

http://press.gefree.org.nz/press/20151023.htm



GE Free NZ 's report on "GE Animals in New Zealand: the first fifteen years, 2000-2015”, documents the world's first field trials of transgenic cows, bred to express one of six transgenic protein traits in milk for use as bio-pharmaceutical products. Agresearch has conducted the research at their Ruakura facility in Hamilton.



Using AgResearch's own records, the report catalogues a sad and profoundly disturbing story that has characterised the genetic engineering (GE) trials.



The surrogate and transgenic cows suffer from chronic illness, reproductive losses, sudden unexplained deaths, and severe deformities.



In the course of fifteen years of experimentation, many thousands of transgenic embryos, predominately developed offshore in private partnership laboratories, have been used. Moreover. the proteins that these animals have been modified to express are already available on the market, made from simpler non-transgenic processes or produced in genetically engineered bacteria in laboratory containment.



Clinical trials on transgenic proteins have resulted in allergic reactions in subjects causing the trials to be terminated early.



Omission and selective reporting of important experimental data to the media has enabled AgResearch to avoid scrutiny into the tragic results of using animals as bioreactors.



The findings cast a shadow over the process for government research funding and ethical oversight of GE animal experiments.



"There are serious gaps in the management of the experiments and a collective silence on the treatment of animals,” said Jon Carapiet, spokesperson for GE Free NZ.



Recently, AgResearch has announced that they have significant and ongoing funding challenges. Regardless of whether the GE animals’ trials have led to these financial woes, these costly GE experiments are a failure and should be closed down.



References:



GE Animals in New Zealand: the first fifteen years” www.gefree.org.nz