FDA says GM pigs safe to eat
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Genetically modified pigs to withstand a devastating virus are now approved for human consumption in the United States. British Animal Genetics Company Genus, based in Basingstoke, announced in April that the Food and Drug Administration of the United States (FDA) approved its Pigs Edicts of the genes after a long examination through the regulatory path of the agency investigators.
Pigs are modified to withstand reproductive and respiratory pig Porcine (PRR), which is the most damaging swords on the economic level in North America, Europe and Asia. The RNA virus that causes PRRS evolves frequently and vaccines could not control the disease.
The genre used CRISPR to deactivate the CD163 pig gene, which code the host’s input receiver for the virus. The CD163 is expressed on the surface of macrophages and mature monocytes. When one of the CD163 domains was changed in the pork, animals had pulmonary alveolar macrophages resistant to the PRSV and have shown no sign of infection when they are challenged with the virus. The offspring of these pigs inherits the resistance trait of the virus. The work arises from the search for Randall Prather at the University of Missouri, which has published Nature Biotechnology in 2016.
Successful marketing will require approvals on the main American export markets – Mexico, Canada and Japan – because the United States is a net pork exporter. The genre has already received a green light from regulators in Brazil, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, which has judged that pigs will be regulated in the same way as unrelated pigs. The company is also looking for regulatory approval in China, which is the largest consumer of pork.
The FDA previously approved two genetically modified animals for food supply. The first was a genetically modified salmon that grows faster than its unmatched counterparts. But sales were limited and its developer, Harvard Aquaboundy, Massachusetts, abandoned operations. The second, the Pork de Galsafe de Révivior in Blacksburg, Virginia, is changed to deactivate the production of a sugar molecule called α-Gal which causes allergic reactions in some people. The company strives to use the tissues and organs of these pigs for xenotransplantation.
