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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012

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This is Behzad Ghareyazie again. 

I wish to respond to the question raised by Dr. Didier Breyer in Message 2. "My question relates to the selection strategies that will be (or have been) used to develop new GMOs that are likely to be commercialized in developing countries within the next five years”. And “I would be interested to know whether the presence of ARMGs in GM plants to be commercialized in developing countries has been considered an issue and whether alternative strategies have been envisaged and/or implemented". 

I agree with Prof. Gupta (Message 3) in that the issue of antibiotic resistant marker genes (ARMGs) has been overblown with no scientific data supporting any harmful effect of these genes on human and/or animal health or the environment. I also agree that this is mainly a European concern but I should admit that it has great influence on developing countries like Iran where there is little or no capacity to differentiate the "true" interest of the opponents of the GM technology from their "excuse" using the unknown risk associated with the use of ARMGs to prevent the application of GM technology in their own country. 

In Iran, some of the GMOs in pipeline (e.g. Bt rice) contain ARMGs (hpt). Bt cotton contains Kanamycin resistant gene etc. However, it has recently been decided at the Agricultural Biotechnology research institute of Iran that to the extent possible ARMGs should be avoided not because they pose any risk, but because, as a reality, this is currently a concern raised by some people (influenced by European concern).  Therefore, in future there will be no ban on ARMGs in Iran (unless there is a scientific finding against using them), but in developing new GMOs ARMGs will be avoided.

Behzad Ghareyazie (PhD Genetics)
Senior Scientist,
Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII),
President, Biosafety Society of Iran.
President, Agronomy and Plant Breeding Society of Iran,
Executive Director, Iran Biotechnology Information Center (IRBIC)
Tel. Office: 0098-2632703536
Mobile: 0098-9121271496
Fax: 0098-2634482871
E-mail: ghareyazie (at) yahoo.com
URL:  www.irbic.ir
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