Frankenpets: something fishy

international | environment | news report Monday February 23, 2004 12:26 by kokomero

transgenic glow-in-the-dark pet on sale in the US

According to an American company which is selling fluorescent fish for $5 a pop they are intended for use as aquarium fish only, and should not be used for any other purpose.

The zebra fish have been modified by the insertion of a protien isolated from jellyfish into their genome so that they glow when exposed to ultraviolet light.

The scientists who created these frankenpets have sought to minimise safety concerns by saying that the insertion of foreign DNA makes them more susceptable to disease and hence lowers the chance of their breeding with unmodified fish if released into the wild. They have even attempted to say that the fish could be used as "toxin detectors" on the basis of their susceptibility to environmental toxins.

Additionally research has shown that these modified fish grow to a much smaller size than unmodified fish supposedly because of the burden of expressing foreign protiens.

Additionally modified females produce only 50% of the eggs wrt unmodified fish and males have measureably lower fertility.

All of this yet the FDA have no problem in approving them and see no need to regulate their distribution.

FDA Statement Regarding Glofish

Because tropical aquarium fish are not used for food purposes, they pose no threat to the food supply. There is no evidence that these genetically engineered zebra danio fish pose any more threat to the environment than their unmodified counterparts which have long been widely sold in the United States. In the absence of a clear risk to the public health, the FDA finds no reason to regulate these particular fish.

What's next gentically modified snakes with chlorophyll so the owners don't have to feed them any more and they can get a free feed by basking in the sun?