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

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Biotech-Mod2 <[log in to unmask]>
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:19:03 +0100
text/plain (37 lines)
I am Henry Clifford, senior executive with AquaBounty Technologies, the US company which has developed the GM salmon, commonly known as AquAdvantage Salmon (AAS), referred to earlier by Dr. Murray (Message 12). I am a 30+ year veteran of the global aquaculture industry, with 20+ years working with genetic improvement programs in aquaculture. 

I would like to respond to the two questions posed in Message 32, with specific reference to the questions about our salmon:

A. "Are the proposed new species mentioned here intra-genic or trans-genic". 

Technically our salmon is transgenic, since we transferred a gene from a chinook salmon to an Atlantic salmon (two different species), but practically speaking, it was "salmon to salmon"

B. "In the event of deliberate release or accidental escape, particularly of salmon, will this pose a threat to, or dilute the wild stock".  

No it will not for the following reasons:

1. AAS are sterile (triploid),
2. AAS are all female.
3. Atlantic salmon are reproductively incompatible (cannot breed) with any of the five Pacific salmon species. 
4. For reasons 1, 2, and 3, AAS are unable to establish reproductively active, self sustaining populations in the wild.
5. AAS will only be reared in land based, contained culture systems with multiple, redundant containment barriers preventing their escape into the wild. They will not be reared in sea cages.
6. Due to the unique physiological characteristics of AAS, they are actually at a competitive disadvantage in the wild when compared to wild fish populations.

Henry C. Clifford
Vice President of Marketing & Sales
AquaBounty Technologies
San Diego, 
California 92121
United States
Tel: 858 450-9487
Fax: (858) 450-9519
Email: hclifford (at) aquabounty.com
www.aquabounty.com 

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information on this FAO Biotechnology Forum, see http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/]

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