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[SANET-MG] toxic gm peas and regulatory boxes



CFIA seems to have misunderstood the recent experiment by Sawyer et al (see below the reference and a quote from the conclusions). This is a serious problem typical of Canadian regulators, they just do not seem to do homework and depend on glib public relations releases. The inflammation response caused by the GM pea was as serious as an allergic response but looking for allergic responses in Canada would never uncover the toxic inflammation response. Canadian regulators think in boxes and seem unable to cope with responses outside the boxes laid out by their superiors who themselves answer mainly to corporate interests.
December 22, 2005
Prof. Joe Cummins
Reply to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on the Immune Response to Genetically Modified Peas My colleague contacted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regarding the powerful immune response evoked when test animals were fed Genetically Modified (GM) peas. On 19 December,2005 CFIA responded to my colleagues detailed comments on a study showing that a gene from a common bean created a powerful debilitating immune response in a test animal. The CFIA response did not reply to the study in question but instead provided a detailed discussion of the concept “substantial equivalence” and the procedures used by CFIA to evaluate toxic food impacts such as allergenicity. Briefly at the end of a long letter CFIA noted “You cited a recent publication by Prescott et al regarding GM field peas in your message. We consider this study to be an example of how the appropriate methods are at hand to identify allergenicity concerns associated with newly expressed proteins in plants.” The response from CFIA was shocking, CFIA must have known, or should have known that the study by Prescott et al regarding GM field peas had not observed an allergic response at all (the allergic response is evoked by IgE antibodies). The actual experiment described a powerful immune response provoked by another class of antibodies, that response was very toxic to the test animal. The frightening thing about the CFIA response was it blissful unawareness of the actual study or its effort to obfuscate the significance of the study. Clearly, if allergenicity alone had been tested the toxic peas would have been released for consumption in food and feed! The CFIA letter shows a basic flaw in the regulation of GM food and feed in Canada. The bureaucrats go to any length to provide public relations for GM food and feed and they appear to wear blinders about the inadequacy of safety evaluations. This sorry situation has come to pass because the bureaucrats are pressured to approve GM food and feed which is not labeled in the market and thus serious hazards may go undetected.


J. Agric. Food Chem., 53 (23), 9023 -9030, 2005. 10.1021/jf050594v S0021-8561(05)00594-7

Transgenic Expression of Bean -Amylase Inhibitor in Peas Results in Altered Structure and Immunogenicity Vanessa E. Prescott, Peter M. Campbell, Andrew Moore, Joerg Mattes, Marc E. Rothenberg, Paul S. Foster, T. J. V. Higgins, and Simon P. Hogan*

"Recently, peas expressing a gene for RAI from the common
bean were generated for protection against field and storage pests
(3-6). Characterization of RAI by structural analysis has
demonstrated that transgenic expression of this protein in peas
led to the synthesis of a modified form of RAI. Further, we
show that the modified form of RAI possessed altered antigenic
properties and consumption of this protein by mice predisposed
to RAI-specific CD4+ Th2-type inflammation and elicited
immunoreactivity to concurrently consumed heterogeneous food
antigens."

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