April 25, 2011

Europe rejects GM super-salmon

European salmon farmers and breeders who dominate global sales are wary of a transgenic American superfish that might conquer part of the US$107 billion-a-year aquaculture business.

Genetically-modified (GM) Atlantic salmon patented by US biotech firm AquaBounty is billed as growing at double speed. It may be approved by US regulators as early as this summer.

"This is a safe and stable construct," AquaBounty CEO Ronald Stotish said, explaining how technicians inject Atlantic salmon eggs with genes from Pacific Chinook and bottom-dwelling ocean pout. This results in a transgenic fish kind of three species, which would be the first GM animal approved for human consumption, joining GM plants like soy and corn that have been altered to tolerate harsh herbicides.

"If it (GM salmon) becomes a big thing, it is clearly negative for the existing salmon farmers," said Dag Sletmo, an analyst at Oslo investment bank ABG Sundal Collier.

Norwegian Atlantic salmon producers led by Cermaq and Marine Harvest provided 65% of world supply in 2010, exporting a record US$5.9 billion as the big new middle classes of Asia and Eastern Europe stoked demand.

Sletmo said salmon has become a global commodity whose prices could fall if genetic tinkering increases supply while causing decline in demand in core markets like Europe, where sentiments run high against GM food. Several experts said it would be rejected if anyone applied to sell GM eggs or fish in Europe.

"We would expect it to be less challenging to market such a fish in US than in Europe, but it is not certain that it would be marketable in the US," said Joergen Christiansen, spokesman for Marine Harvest, which is keeping an eye on AquaBounty. With its deep fjords, Norway turned out 945,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon last year, seven times more than second-place Britain and 53 times more than US, said research bureau Kontali Analyse.

A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee said AquaBounty salmon are safe to eat and unlikely to damage the environment if raised in land-based tank farms permitting no contact with wild fish. Tank production would also reduce the escapes, pollution and parasites that bedevil sea-pen farmers.

Today, farmers keep only young salmon in tanks and move them to sea until harvesting, usually at two to three years of age. Left to grow old, AquaBounty salmon grows no larger than the standard kind.