Genetically Engineered Soybeans Produce Altered Milk and Stunted Kids: Study
Mother goats fed on ‘Roundup-ready’
GMO soy produce milk that’s much lower in fat, protein and antibodies
than non-GMO controls, writes Jonathan Latham, and contains traces of GE DNA. The milk also stunts their kids’ growth.
Pregnant goats fed with genetically engineered (GE) soybeans have offspring who grow more slowly and are shorter, according to a new Italian study (Tudisco et al., 2015).
Publishing in the journal of Small Ruminant Research, the researchers were testing the results of supplementing the feed of female goats with Roundup Ready GE soybeans.
Roundup Ready soybeans are engineered to
resist the herbicide Roundup and are sold by agribusiness giant
Monsanto. They are some of the most widely grown soybeans in the world.
The reduced growth of the goat kids was
attributed by the researchers to their observation that the milk of the
GE-fed mothers was significantly less nutritious and contained less of
the IgG antibodies important for early growth.
“This was a carefully conducted study“, commented Dr Judy Carman, Director of the Institute of Health and Environmental Research, Australia. She was not involved in the research, but told Independent Science News:
“The differences in the composition of the colostrum between the mothers fed the GE soy and the non-GE soy were particularly striking. The colostrum from the GE-fed mothers contained only 2/3 of the fat, 1/3 of the protein and close to half of the IgG of the mothers fed the non-GM soy.”
GE-fed milk: less milk, fat, antibodies; presence of GE DNA fragments
To carry out these experiments the
researchers divided pregnant female Cilentana goats into four groups, 60
days before kidding. Two of the groups were fed goat food containing GE
Roundup Ready soybeans (at two different concentrations). The other two
groups were fed conventional (non-GE) soybeans, also at two different
concentrations.
After the mothers gave birth all
offspring were fed only with their mother’s milk for 60 days. The growth
of these kids was measured twice. After both 30 days and 60 days the
kids of GE-fed mothers were approximately 20% lower in weight and
shorter in stature. Both these differences were statistically
significant.
Lower offspring weights were not the
only unexpected findings. The researchers also found that the milk of
GE-fed goats was lower in protein and fat. This difference in milk
quality was large (6% protein in both GE-fed groups versus 18% in both
non-GE fed groups) for the first few weeks after birth but gradually
disappeared-even though the mothers continued to be fed the GE soybeans.
Additionally, the researchers also found
that the colostrum produced by GE-fed mothers had low amounts of IgG
antibodies. These antibodies are important for growth and for healthy
immune development.
A third difference noted by the
researchers was that transgenic DNA could be detected in the colostrum
of most (10/16) of the GE-fed goats. No transgene DNA was detected in
the milk of goats fed non-GE soybeans. This is not the first time that
transgene DNA (or non-transgenic DNA) has been found in the milk of
ruminants, however.
The problem expresses in the milk
Interestingly, the researchers found
that all of the kids were of similar size at birth, regardless of
whether their mothers ate Roundup Ready GE soybeans or not.
The researchers therefore proposed that
the stunting of the offspring of GE-fed mothers reflected a milk
deficiency – presumably either the lower nutritional value of the
colostrum and milk of GE-fed mothers or the colostrum antibody
differences that were observed.
The authors noted that low IgG antibody
levels in colostrum are correlated in other ruminants with slower growth
and also that IgG antibodies are known to have a role in nutrient
absorption because they promote gut development in newborns.
The researchers did not discuss whether the transgene DNA fragments found in the milk played a role in altering kid development.
This result is the strongest
demonstration so far of altered growth and development in offspring of
GE-fed mothers. The same researchers in 2010 showed altered activity of
the lactic dehydrogenase enzyme in kids fed milk from mothers that ate
GE Roundup Ready soybeans. In that previous study however, no additional
effects on goat offspring were detected (Tudisco et al., 2010).
“It is already known that Roundup Ready soybeans have various defects including a Manganese deficiency“, said Dr Allison Wilson of The Bioscience Resource Project.
“Yet regulators and GMO developers
have continuously dismissed credible reports of GMO crops causing
apparent harm to animals, from many different research groups. Hopefully
they will not ignore yet another study.“
Dr Jonathan R. Latham is editor of Independent Science News, where this article was originally published.
For further details on the studies of R. Tudesco et al see:
- R. Tudisco, S. CalabrĂ², M.I. Cutrignelli, G. Moniello, M. Grossi, V. Mastellone, P. Lombardi, M.E. Peroa, F. Infascelli (2015) ‘Genetically modified soybean in a goat diet: Influence on kid performance‘, Small Ruminant Research 126: 67-74.
- Tudisco R., V. Mastellone, M. I. Cutrignelli, P. Lombardi, F. Bovera, N. Mirabella, G. Piccolo, S. CalabrĂ², L. Avallone and F. Infascelli (2010) ‘Fate of transgenic DNA and evaluation of metabolic effects in goats fed genetically modified soybean and in their offsprings‘, Animal 4: 1662-1671.
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