News
Study: No problems from GMO livestock feed
A new study finds no health or nutrition problems associated with the feeding of genetically modified (GM) crops to livestock or poultry.
The study was conducted by Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam, an animal biotechnology and genomics specialist at the University of California-Davis.
“There’s been a lot of media coverage of a handful of highly controversial studies suggesting really egregious health effects of genetically engineered feed on animals, causing them to be infertile or develop tumors,” Van Eenennaam says.
But she says that didn’t really gel with her field experience, “because I’m often actually in slaughterhouses and haven’t noticed health problems with animals coming through.”
So Van Eenennaam set out to examine nearly 30 years of livestock productivity and health data from both before and after the introduction of GM crops into animal feed production. She concludes that the feeding of GM crops has not had a detrimental effect on either the health or performance of animals.
Van Eenennaam says the broiler information set in her study is probably the most powerful.
“We just have such a large number of about nine-billion birds a year that are inspected and slaughtered in the U.S. annually and they are eating mostly genetically engineered feed,” she says. “Again, we’re not seeing tumors in post-mortem examinations There’s been decreased rates of post-mortem condemnation, improved feed-to-gain ratio, and age-to-market has decreased.”
The review study also found no differences in the nutritional makeup of the meat, milk or other food products derived from animals that ate genetically engineered feed.
Van Eenennaam’s study is set to published in the Journal of Animal Science in October.
Link to a report on the U.S. Grains Council web site
Tags: animal feed, GMOs
Studies of broilers tell you little…these chickens have a lifespan of 40-50 days. Similarly, pigs are slaughtered usually in 5-7 months after being born. With the exception of the dairy cattle, the studies reviewed by this author are equivalent to the short-term animal studies conducted by ag-biotech companies like Monsanto. Furthermore, her critique of independent studies like Carman’s pig study is very superficial, making accusations but offering no substance. Let’s be real…Van Eenennaam is a GMO promoter, traveling around the country speaking at industry sponsored “educational” events regarding GMOs and GMO agriculture. Competent scientists are reviewing her “study” and I’m sure we’ll see devastating critiques soon…