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Food Safety of Animals Produced by Biotechnology
Abstract
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responsible for the safety, wholesomeness, and accurate labeling of meat and poultry products. It is anticipated that several products of biotechnology will soon appear among those regulated by FSIS. In general, these products will not differ substantially from traditional ones. FSIS will regulate such new products in the same manner as traditional products, taking into consideration the method of production and its effect on the finished product.
There is considerable interest in developing transgenic food animals. At the present state of technology, such animals are not likely to vary significantly from animals produced by traditional breeding and are likely to be demonstrated safe for human consumption.
Worth noting are some considerations regarding the risk of using biotechnology in food and food animal production versus the risks incurred by avoiding such use. For example, transgenesis provides a specific method for producing faster-growing or disease-resistant animals without employing xenobiotics. This could result in an economic advantage as well as potentially reduce the human and environmental risks that may be associated with the misuse of animal drugs and agricultural chemicals.
This report describes the unique biological properties of a transgenic chicken line that contains a defective avian leukosis virus (ALV) proviral insert that we call alv6. Chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF) containing this insert express subgroup A envelope glycoprotein since they yield focus-forming pseudotype virus when co-cultivated with transformed quail cells expressing envelope-defective Bryan high-liter Rous sarcoma virus (RSV). In addition, these cells display high interference to subgroup A RSV but not to subgroup B RSV infection. Chickens containing this insert are highly resistant to pathogenic subgroup A ALV infection, but show little immunological tolerance to subgroup B ALV infection. Thus we have artificially inserted a dominant gene for resistance to avian leukosis infection into the chicken germ line.