Is there a test to detect meat from animals fed GM corn?
Prof. Joe Cummins, e-mail: jcummins@julian.uwo.ca , 29 March 2000 Rick Charmes’ question is a very important one and one that made me think a great deal. I hope others will contribute their points of view. The most significant use of GM corn crops is the final fattening of cattle or other animals) who are being prepared for market. Before or during killing it is easy to test the animal feces for remnants of GM food. Importing countries, for example, may require right to test live animals on the way to export as meat. Tests for GM crop remnants in meat are not presently available and not perceived by most regulators. A research program is needed to determine whether DNA or protein from GM crops can be detected in the blood of animals fed GM crops. Similar studies would also be useful for humans. There is reason to believe that such tests would yield useful information. The use of DNA, for example, as vaccines shows that the molecule may persist in blood for a long time after injection,
