Scientists believe a new feed solution for Atlantic farmed salmon – created from a genetically modified plant – could help relieve pressure on stressed marine resources.

The University of Stirling, in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, is conducting a study into the potential benefits of using the customised feed to improve access to omega-3 fish oils, credited as being a key component of a balanced diet.

Wild fisheries – which currently provide the beneficial oils – are at their sustainable limits and, therefore, existing stocks are not able to provide enough of the beneficial omega-3 for a global population.

In a bid to tackle the issue, current practice involves giving farmed fish a feed blended with both marine fish oil, sourced from the sea, and vegetable oil. However, the new study could revolutionise the industry – and return levels of omega-3 fatty acids in farmed fish to the levels of a decade ago.

The research is jointly led by plant scientist Professor Johnathan Napier, from Rothamsted Research, and fish nutritionist Professor Douglas Tocher, of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture.

“The joint project allows us to culture salmon to market size in sea pens while extracting data to ensure new feeds support good growth, feed use and product quality”, Professor Tocher said.

Professor Napier added: “This is the largest feeding trial to validate the efficacy of the project. It’s extremely significant because it will demonstrate the ability to use omega-3 fish oils from plants across the whole production cycle of salmon.”

The study will see the farmed fish – which are not genetically modified (GM) – being given a feed which includes oils pressed from a GM oilseed crop plant, Camelina. The modified plant has high-levels of the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, proving to be a safe and cost-effective source of these for aquaculture feeds.

During the course of the trial, Dr Monica Betancor, a Research Fellow at Stirling, will play a crucial role by checking on the salmons’ health and collecting data.

“Collecting samples and analysing the data are imperative to the project. To test the performance of the fish, I’ll be measuring the weight and growth of the fish, but also looking at tissue and molecular samples comparing results of fish fed the new fish feed to salmon fed a standard diet,” said Dr Betancor.

The project will both serve as a proof of concept and a potential solution to the sustainability issue in supplying fish oils to farmed fish.

Professor Napier has long been exploring how to develop a sustainable source of omega-3 using transgenic plants.

“It’s taken a decade to develop plants able to produce the oils and be used in aquaculture,” he said.

“This GM technology shows great promise as a potential solution to help fish farming remain even more sustainable while continuing to grow as an industry.”

Studies have suggested a link between omega-3 fish oils – also known as omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids such as EPA and DHA- and benefits to human health.

Source: technology networks

Midden in de komkommertijd was het nog nooit zo spannend voor de biotech sector. Kunnen we straks gewassen ontwikkelen waar de samenleving om staat te springen? Gewassen die duurzamer geteeld kunnen worden, gezond en lekker zijn. Ligt moderne plantenveredeling nu echt binnen handbereik? Op 25 juli zal het Europese Hof van Justitie (EHJ) uitspraak doen of mutagenese en de moderne vormen daarvan uitgezonderd zijn van de wetgeving voor genetisch modificatie (GM-wetgeving). Advocaat Generaal Bobek heeft dit in zijn op 23 januari 2018 uitgebrachte advies al bevestigd. HollandBIO ziet dit als een grote kans en hoopt dat het Europese Hof het advies overneemt.

Ter voorbereiding van de EHJ uitspraak is er op 21 juni een projectbijeenkomst geweest met de betrokken leden. Daarin zijn de verschillende scenario’s van de uitspraak en de mogelijke gevolgen daarvan voor het bedrijfsleven besproken. We hopen natuurlijk dat ook het EHJ bevestigt dat de moderne veredelingsmethoden niet onder de GM-wetgeving vallen. Dat zou betekenen dat alle gewassen ontwikkeld met die methoden en waarin geen soort-vreemd DNA is geïntroduceerd (en die dus ook in de natuur kunnen voorkomen), niet onder de GM-wetgeving vallen. Aanvullende wetgeving is volgens ons ook niet nodig. De reguliere regelgeving voor milieu, zaden en planten en voedsel zijn voldoende om de veiligheid te waarborgen. Zie hiervoor ook het recent gepubliceerde artikel van een aantal juridische experts. Maar ook als het EJH anders besluit, zullen we de uitspraak aangrijpen om onze sector in een positief daglicht te zetten en momentum te creëren voor verandering.

HollandBIO is nu hard aan het werk om bovenstaande boodschap te verspreiden en uit te leggen. Daarvoor voert ze vele gesprekken met betrokken departementen, medestanders, de media en de politiek. Voor deze laatste groep is er in februari samen met Plantum een ‘De wereld draait door’ (DWDD) bijeenkomst georganiseerd. Tijdens die bijeenkomst konden de woordvoerders van de verschillende politieke partijen rechtstreeks in gesprek gaan met wetenschappers, bedrijven en milieuorganisaties. De bijeenkomst was zo succesvol dat er in het najaar een nieuwe DWDD-editie zal worden georganiseerd met de jongerenafdelingen van de politieke partijen.

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and PG Economics released new studies highlighting the continued social, environmental and economic benefits of the global adoption of biotechnology in agriculture.

The complementary studies – PG Economics’ “GM Crops: Global Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts 1996-2016” and ISAAA’s “Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2017” – examine the continued widespread adoption of global crop biotechnology, and the significant positive socio-economic and environmental impacts of this adoption by farmers and communities around the globe.

“Biotech crops offer enormous benefits to the environment, health of humans and animals, and contributions to the improvement of socioeconomic conditions of farmers and the public,” said ISAAA Chair of the Board, Paul S. Teng. “The recent production of next generation biotech crops – including apples and potatoes that are not likely to spoil or become damaged, anthocyanin-enriched super sweet pineapple, increased ear biomass and high amylose content maize, and soybeans with modified oil content, combined with the commercialization approval for an insect resistant sugarcane – provides more diverse offerings to consumers and food producers.”

The ISAAA report shows the global biotech crop area increased in 2017 by 3 percent or 4.7 million hectares.  This increase is due primarily to greater profitability stemming from higher commodity prices, increased market demand both domestically and internationally, and the presence of available seed technologies. As more developing countries, now 19 in total including India, Pakistan, Brazil, Bolivia, Sudan, Mexico, Colombia, Vietnam, Honduras, and Bangladesh  have increased their biotech crop area and continue to allow farmers to  adopt biotechnology in food production, smallholder farmers see the direct improvements this offers, allowing them  to provide better lives for themselves and their families. In fact, developing countries now account for 53 percent of the global biotech area planted.

From 1996-2016, PG Economics reported biotech crops provided $186.1 billion in economic gains to some 17 million farmers, many of whom are female, smallholder farmers solely responsible for the livelihood of their families and communities.

“Global food insecurity is a huge problem in developing countries, with around 108 million people in food crisis-affected countries still at risk or experiencing food insecurity,” said Graham Brookes, Director of PG Economics and co-author of the socio-economic and environmental impact paper. “We have seen for more than 20 years now how crop biotechnology adoption in developing countries has contributed to higher yields, more secure production, and increased incomes greatly contributing to decreasing poverty, hunger and malnutrition in some regions of the globe most prone to these challenges.”

The PG Economics study also shows great strides have already been made to reduce the footprint of agriculture and in mitigating and adapting to climate change. The latest study highlights how biotech use in agriculture continues to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Coupled with the record 189.8 million hectares of biotech crops grown globally, the continued expansion of biotech adoption offers beneficial nutritional quality traits that may help offset the nutrition-draining impact of climate change on certain crops. Another aspect driving the increase may be related to research conducted by public sector institutions on rice, banana, potato, wheat, chickpea, pigeon pea and mustard with nutritional quality traits beneficial to food producers and consumers in developing countries. Studies1 show that climate change can considerably reduce the protein, zinc and iron content of staple crops, putting 1.4 billion children at risk of major iron deficiencies by 2050.

For 2017, ISAAA also reports that there were improvements in the commercial availability and planting of biotech fruits and vegetables with direct consumer benefits. Two generations of Innate® potatoes have been approved in the U.S and Canada, one with reduced bruising and browning and lower acrylamide and the other with these traits plus lower levels of reducing sugars and late blight protection, along with non-browning Arctic® apples in the USA, and Bt eggplant in Bangladesh. These are all more sustainable products for consumers and the environment alike.

Innovatie zit in de genen van de Nederlandse plantenveredelaar. Hierdoor liggen de supermarkten vol met verschillende soorten tomaten, paprika’s en kroppen sla. Dit is het resultaat van continue vernieuwing en gebruik van de modernste methoden en technieken. De veredelaars willen ook in de toekomst voldoende, gezond, lekker en duurzaam geproduceerd voedsel blijven maken. Daarom moeten moderne veredelingsmethoden zoals CRISPR-Cas, waarbij geen soort-vreemd DNA wordt geïntroduceerd, zo snel mogelijk uitgezonderd worden van de regelgeving voor genetische modificatie.

Tijdens een themabijeenkomst afgelopen week van Keygene en de Wageningse Universiteit over het verleden en de toekomst van de plantenveredeling, riepen Arjen van Tunen van Keygene en Jaap Mazereeuw van Enza Zaden de Nederlandse overheid op om hiervoor in Europa het voortouw te nemen. ‘Als we niets doen, belanden we in het museum’, waarschuwt Van Tunen. Mazereeuw benadrukt dat we in Nederland de ambitie moeten hebben om het gidsland voor plantenveredeling te zijn en te blijven. Ook Louise Fresco, voorzitter van de Raad van Bestuur van Wageningen Universiteit, onderstreepte de noodzaak voor blijvende innovatie in de plantenveredeling. ‘Door de toenemende vraag naar biomassa hebben we alle mogelijke vernieuwing in de landbouw en de plantenveredeling nodig. Maatschappelijke acceptatie van deze vernieuwing is daarvoor echter wel noodzakelijk’, gaf ze aan. HollandBIO ondersteunt de oproep van de plantenveredelaars en de Wageningen Universiteit van harte!

Lees ook het artikel van de nieuwe oogst.