Strategies to enable the adoption of animal biotechnology to sustainably improve global food safety and security

Abstract

The ability to generate transgenic animals has existed for over 30 years, and from those early days many predicted that the technology would have beneficial applications in agriculture. Numerous transgenic agricultural animals now exist, however to date only one product from a transgenic animal has been approved for the food chain, due in part to cumbersome regulations. Recently, new techniques such as precision breeding have emerged, which enables the introduction of desired traits without the use of transgenes. The rapidly growing human population, environmental degradation, and concerns related to zoonotic and pandemic diseases have increased pressure on the animal agriculture sector to provide a safe, secure and sustainable food supply. There is a clear need to adopt transgenic technologies as well as new methods such as gene editing and precision breeding to meet these challenges and the rising demand for animal products. To achieve this goal, cooperation, education, and communication between multiple stakeholders-including scientists, industry, farmers, governments, trade organizations, NGOs and the public-is necessary. This report is the culmination of concepts first discussed at an OECD sponsored conference and aims to identify the main barriers to the adoption of animal biotechnology, tactics for navigating those barriers, strategies to improve public perception and trust, as well as industry engagement, and actions for governments and trade organizations including the OECD to harmonize regulations and trade agreements. Specifically, the report focuses on animal biotechnologies that are intended to improve breeding and genetics and currently are not routinely used in commercial animal agriculture. We put forward recommendations on how scientists, regulators, and trade organizations can work together to ensure that the potential benefits of animal biotechnology can be realized to meet the future needs of agriculture to feed the world.

Management of Mendelian Traits in Breeding Programs by Gene Editing: A Simulation Study

“…Many challenges are associated with genetically modified organisms, some technical and others related to consumer attitudes towards the technology [51,52]. Although the technology has improved dramatically in recent years, the general public remains concerned about genetically modifying food crops and livestock.…”

Quelles performances pour les animaux de demain ? Objectifs et méthodes de sélection

“…Selon certains auteurs, promoteurs zélés de ces nouvelles technologies, elles offriraient des opportunités considérables pour l'amélioration génétique des espèces végétales et animales d'intérêt agronomique. Selon eux, seule une utilisation rapide et résolue de ces techniques permettrait de relever efficacement les défis importants auxquels les filières de productions animales devront faire face au cours du XXI e siècle : procréation et élevage d'animaux plus robustes, tolérants ou résistants aux maladies infectieuses notamment (Guénet, 2017), dans des systèmes ayant un recours réduit aux intrants, respectueux du bien-être des animaux et de l'environnement, pour l'obtention de produits aux qualités optimisées (Tizard et al, 2016 ;Ruan et al, 2017).…”

Non-Coding RNA Roles in Ruminant Mammary Gland Development and Lactation

“…Genome engineering has been considered as the next genomic revolution [144], and it is expected to significantly improve livestock production by precision genome editing [145][146][147] favouring markers associated with improved productivity, reproduction and health status. The history of genome editing in livestock has been extensively reviewed [145,[148][149][150].…”