AquAdvantage sailed to the USA

The US authorities allowed GM salmon to be grown in the country

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed the company producing GM salmon, approved in 2015, to import fish roe from Canada for cultivation and sale in the United States, however, the entry of fast-growing salmon into the market may be prevented by a lawsuit against the decision to approve it. The story is told by the Associated Press.

GM salmon AquAdvantage in 2015 became the first GM animal allowed to be eaten in the United States. The AquAdvantage line was created by AquaBounty Technologies, founded in 1991, and carries two key changes in the genome. It has a growth hormone gene, borrowed from a noticeably larger relative, the Pacific salmon-chinook salmon. Another DNA fragment obtained from beldyuga helps this hormone to affect the GM salmon's own genes. As a result, fish, which usually grow only in spring and summer, continue to gain weight all year round. These manipulations do not affect the final size and nutritional value of salmon, but they significantly reduce the time required for breeding – up to one and a half years instead of three. The company is going to raise only females, making them infertile in order to limit the risk of the GM organism entering the environment.

After approval, the FDA issued a restrictive warning that effectively prohibited the company from importing AquAdvantage caviar from Canada, where the AquaBounty Technologies research center is located, to the state of Indiana, where the fish will be bred for sale. Now the FDA has lifted this restriction, arguing that salmon has passed all safety tests, and after appropriate changes in legislation, its manufacturer will be required to report that the fish is a bioengineering product (these rules will begin in 2020, from 2022 labeling will become mandatory).

AquaBounty CEO Sylvia Wolf told AP that she expects the final certification of the production site in Indiana in the coming weeks. She noted that it was quite difficult to negotiate sales of GM salmon without knowing when these sales could start.

At the same time, the lawsuit against the FDA on a lawsuit filed by a coalition of consumer and environmental organizations continues: the plaintiffs, who protested the 2015 decision on the approval of AquAdvantage, hope that they will be able to obtain restrictive measures from the court in the form of a temporary ban on the sale of fish. At the same time, Wolfe believes that the trial will not interfere with the company's plans.

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