Enviro Canada next to rule on engineered jumbo salmon

Sarah Schmidt
September 21, 2010
Edmonton Journal

This photo provided by AquaBounty Technologies Inc. shows the size comparison of a genetically engineered farmed salmon alongside a normal Atlantic salmon of the same age.
Photograph by: AFP, Getty Images, Postmedia News

The Canadian government could derail efforts to bring the first genetically engineered fish to dinner plates in the United States by shutting the door on the company's efforts to transform its hatchery in Prince Edward Island from a research facility to a commercial operation.

AquaBounty Technologies Inc. is awaiting final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that would make its jumbo salmon the first GE animal approved for human consumption.

AquaBounty plans to ship the fish eggs to Panama to be grown and processed, then shipped as table-ready fish to the United States for retail sale. As a key step in the approval process, the company's environmental assessment was debated Monday by the U.S. administration's veterinary advisory group.

The panel raised concerns about the impacts on human health and the environmental of the AquAdvantage salmon, genetically engineered to grow twice as fast with a gene from an eel-like fish, called an ocean pout, and a growth hormone from a chinook salmon. The panel reserved judgment.

The FDA declared earlier this month that the salmon engineered in P.E.I. are as safe to eat as other Atlantic salmon.

Opponents in the U.S. warn that if approved, the GE salmon would open the door for other modified animals, such as a GE pig developed at the University of Guelph, to be approved for human consumption without consideration of health and environmental concerns.

They also complain that GE animals for sale at the grocery store might not be labelled as such.

Read the full story in the Edmonton Journal

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