Altered Potatoes Damage Rat
Tissue
The debate over the safety
of genetically modified food just got hotter after researchers found rats that
ate bio-engineered potatoes suffered tissue
damage.
The report appears in the Oct. 16
issue of The Lancet. Researchers from Aberdeen, Scotland fed six rats
potatoes that had been genetically altered to carry a gene that boosts the
potatoes' resistance to attacks from worms and bugs. These rats were compared to
another group of six rats fed regular potatoes, and to a third group fed
potatoes directly spiked with lectin, the protein that makes the potato
resistant.
Ten days later, scientists
found that the intestines of rats fed genetically-altered potatoes had thinned
in some areas and thickened in
others.
Critics say the study is flawed
because too few animals were involved, making the findings
insignificant.
Genetically modified food
is intensely debated throughout Europe, where many people don't believe that
bio-engineered food is safe. Some grocery stores in Europe even advertise that
they carry foods free of genetic alterations. There is growing concern about
bio-engineered food after researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.,
found pollen from genetically-modified corn killed the larvae of a monarch
butterfly.
