Ask Us Anything About GMOs!

Please thoroughly explain the troubling findings of the recent, peer-reviewed journal, by Judy Carman et al., titled, "A long-term toxicology study on pigs fed a combined genetically modified (GM) soy and GM maize diet." Can you ensure the health and safety of animals fed GMO-feed? The article is here:

A:Expert Answer

This response by Cami Ryan, research associate at the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan, addresses the study referenced in your question. An excerpt from the response is included below:




"However, it seems that—post-publication—the paper and its evidence fail the independent peer-review process on many fronts:

"David Tribe reviews the paper here: He says, ‘It’s what some call a fishing expedition in search of a finding, and a known pitfall of animal feeding trials on whole foods…’ Tribe points out (among other things) that some of the study’s observations might be attributed to compositional differences in the variety of soybeans or corn fed to the pigs: ‘[T]here is relatively little information in the paper about nutritional formulation, methods used for producing the pig diets, storage time for the grain and which particular varieties of grain were used in the diets.’


"Dr. Robert Friendship (via Terry Daynard)—swine expert from the University of Guelph—points to methodological problems with ‘visual scoring’ and assessment of ‘inflammation’: '[I]t was incorrect for the researchers to conclude that one group had more stomach inflammation than the other group because the researchers did not examine stomach inflammation. They did a visual scoring of the color of the lining of the stomach of pigs at the abattoir and misinterpreted redness to indicate evidence of inflammation. It does not. They would have had to take a tissue sample and prepare histological slides and examine these samples for evidence of inflammatory response such as white blood cell infiltration and other changes to determine if there was inflammation.’


If you have additional questions after reading this response, please ask.
