Are GMOs--genetically modified organisms--safe for human consumption? A recent SIUC study suggests that the answer is yes, at least for one type of transgenic corn.

The corn, developed by SIUC plant scientists, includes a bacterial gene that allows it to use nitrogen fertilizer more efficiently. Bits of the foreign gene, or transgene, were detected in the stomach contents of 50 of 56 piglets fed the corn, but were found in only one of the samples taken from the small intestine.

This suggests that the additional gene generally does not survive the digestive process. And no traces of the transgene were found in the piglets' feces, flesh, or blood.

"It seems like it degrades rapidly," says swine expert Gary Apgar, an associate professor of animal science. "We found no evidence that it is absorbed (into the animal), and the risk of its coming out in the environment in the form of waste is nonexistent because we failed to find the gene in either the colon or the feces."

The SIUC study, conducted with the help of Janet Beagle, now a doctoral student at Purdue University, is part of an overall look at GMOs as a component of swine diets. The Illinois Council for Food and Agricultural Research and the Illinois Corn Marketing Board have funded the research.

More than a third of the corn crop in the United States now consists of GMOs. Worldwide, acreage planted in GMO crops is "increasing exponentially," Apgar says, "but there's very limited data on what happens 'downstream.'

"We're taking a total systems approach, looking at every aspect of a single animal--meat, fecal material, blood, digesta [stomach and intestinal contents]--at different ages."

Apgar believes the single trace of transgenic DNA found in the small intestine is not of significant concern. "Until we can better characterize the degradation of dietary DNA, we might be a little cautious," he says. But he thinks the weight of scientific evidence, from other studies as well as this one, supports the idea that GMOs are safe for consumption.

--by K. C. Jaehnig, Media & Communication Resources

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