VeganMegan
11-26-2003, 12:39 PM
Latest fad: Glow-in-the-dark fish (http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/science/1103/25glofish.html#)
Zebra fish contains a gene from sea coral that makes it bright red
The New York Times
The genetically engineered pet appears to have arrived.
In a development that is likely to inspire both fascination and alarm, a Texas company said last week that it would soon start selling a genetically engineered aquarium fish that glows in the dark.
The GloFish, as it is called, is a zebra fish containing a gene from a sea coral that makes the fish bright red under normal light and fluorescent under ultraviolet light. Zebra fish, about an inch and a half long, are normally silver and black.
The company selling the fish, Yorktown Technologies, of Austin, calls the fish ''a miracle of science'' and said sales would begin Jan. 5 through pet stores.
Genetic engineering of animals has until now been performed mainly for scientific research or medical purposes, for instance to make mice that get a certain disease. Making glow-in-the-dark fish extends the technology into the realm of human amusement, which might raise some eyebrows. Indeed, an artist who made a glow-in-the-dark rabbit a few years ago as an artwork attracted criticism for undermining the dignity of life for trivial purposes.
Some environmental groups, led by the Center for Food Safety in Washington, are trying to delay the sale of the fish for another reason, saying it should first be reviewed by federal regulators. The groups say the fish might enter natural waterways if people dump out their aquariums and upset the natural balance in ecosystems.
''It's biological pollution,'' said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. He said that even if the GloFish was not dangerous, failure to regulate it would set a precedent allowing many other ornamental fish to enter the market unimpeded.
''We could see hundreds or thousands of new varieties with a variety of novel genes released into the environment with no regulation at all,'' he said.
But Alan Blake, chief executive of Yorktown, said that the company had checked with the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and the Fish and Wildlife Service and determined that the fish did not need regulatory clearance. California does have restrictions on the sale of genetically engineered fish and that the company was now trying to get an exemption from those rules, he said.
The F.D.A. regulates genetically engineered animals meant for the food supply. Indeed, it is considering whether to approve a salmon genetically altered to grow faster. But whether it regulates ornamental fish is unclear.
''F.D.A. is considering the matter, but right now we don't think we have legal jurisdiction here,'' a senior agency official said yesterday.
Wildlife experts have expressed concern that genetically modified animals might alter ecosystems, particularly if, say, they outcompete other fish for food or mates. But Mr. Blake of Yorktown dismissed any such concerns for the GloFish.
''This fish is the same as any other zebra fish aside from the brilliant color,'' he said. And zebra fish, a tropical fresh-water species, cannot survive in the colder waterways of the United States, he said.
The company's Web site, glofish.com, contains letters to the company from some prominent scientists stating that the fish is not likely to pose an environmental risk.
As for concerns about altering animals for human amusement, Mr. Blake said that the fish were developed at the National University of Singapore for use in environmental monitoring. The idea is to make fish that glow when they encounter certain pollutants, the marine equivalent of a canary in a coal mine. But on the way to creating such bio-sentinels, the Singapore scientists first created fish that glowed all the time, which Yorktown licensed.
''These fish were created to help fight environmental pollution,'' Mr. Blake said. ''We are simply breeding existing fish.''
Mr. Blake, 26, started Yorktown with a partner about two and a half years ago. Before that he had started an Internet business that failed.
Similar glow-in-the-dark fish, though using a different gene that makes them green instead of red, were developed in Taiwan and have been sold for several months there and in some other Asian countries. Criticism has arisen there as well, with Singapore, for example, confiscating attempted imports of the fish.
The GloFish will probably cost about $5 each, four or five times the cost of a conventional zebra fish, Mr. Blake said.
The fish are being bred and distributed by two tropical fish wholesalers, Segrest Farms in Gibsonton, Fla., and 5-D Tropical in Plant City, Fla.
Jack Bramlett, vice president of Segrest, said there would be hundreds of thousands of the fish ready to sell and that he expected demand to be strong from tropical fish hobbyists, who are always looking for new varieties.
''I'm sure it's going to be a tremendous rollout from what I'm hearing,'' he said.
But Jennifer Pflugfelder, a spokeswoman for Petsmart, the largest pet supply chain, said the chain would not carry it. She said this was not because the fish were transgenic. Rather, she said, although there have been news reports about glowing fish, ''We just haven't had any demand from our customers at all.''
Zebra fish contains a gene from sea coral that makes it bright red
The New York Times
The genetically engineered pet appears to have arrived.
In a development that is likely to inspire both fascination and alarm, a Texas company said last week that it would soon start selling a genetically engineered aquarium fish that glows in the dark.
The GloFish, as it is called, is a zebra fish containing a gene from a sea coral that makes the fish bright red under normal light and fluorescent under ultraviolet light. Zebra fish, about an inch and a half long, are normally silver and black.
The company selling the fish, Yorktown Technologies, of Austin, calls the fish ''a miracle of science'' and said sales would begin Jan. 5 through pet stores.
Genetic engineering of animals has until now been performed mainly for scientific research or medical purposes, for instance to make mice that get a certain disease. Making glow-in-the-dark fish extends the technology into the realm of human amusement, which might raise some eyebrows. Indeed, an artist who made a glow-in-the-dark rabbit a few years ago as an artwork attracted criticism for undermining the dignity of life for trivial purposes.
Some environmental groups, led by the Center for Food Safety in Washington, are trying to delay the sale of the fish for another reason, saying it should first be reviewed by federal regulators. The groups say the fish might enter natural waterways if people dump out their aquariums and upset the natural balance in ecosystems.
''It's biological pollution,'' said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. He said that even if the GloFish was not dangerous, failure to regulate it would set a precedent allowing many other ornamental fish to enter the market unimpeded.
''We could see hundreds or thousands of new varieties with a variety of novel genes released into the environment with no regulation at all,'' he said.
But Alan Blake, chief executive of Yorktown, said that the company had checked with the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and the Fish and Wildlife Service and determined that the fish did not need regulatory clearance. California does have restrictions on the sale of genetically engineered fish and that the company was now trying to get an exemption from those rules, he said.
The F.D.A. regulates genetically engineered animals meant for the food supply. Indeed, it is considering whether to approve a salmon genetically altered to grow faster. But whether it regulates ornamental fish is unclear.
''F.D.A. is considering the matter, but right now we don't think we have legal jurisdiction here,'' a senior agency official said yesterday.
Wildlife experts have expressed concern that genetically modified animals might alter ecosystems, particularly if, say, they outcompete other fish for food or mates. But Mr. Blake of Yorktown dismissed any such concerns for the GloFish.
''This fish is the same as any other zebra fish aside from the brilliant color,'' he said. And zebra fish, a tropical fresh-water species, cannot survive in the colder waterways of the United States, he said.
The company's Web site, glofish.com, contains letters to the company from some prominent scientists stating that the fish is not likely to pose an environmental risk.
As for concerns about altering animals for human amusement, Mr. Blake said that the fish were developed at the National University of Singapore for use in environmental monitoring. The idea is to make fish that glow when they encounter certain pollutants, the marine equivalent of a canary in a coal mine. But on the way to creating such bio-sentinels, the Singapore scientists first created fish that glowed all the time, which Yorktown licensed.
''These fish were created to help fight environmental pollution,'' Mr. Blake said. ''We are simply breeding existing fish.''
Mr. Blake, 26, started Yorktown with a partner about two and a half years ago. Before that he had started an Internet business that failed.
Similar glow-in-the-dark fish, though using a different gene that makes them green instead of red, were developed in Taiwan and have been sold for several months there and in some other Asian countries. Criticism has arisen there as well, with Singapore, for example, confiscating attempted imports of the fish.
The GloFish will probably cost about $5 each, four or five times the cost of a conventional zebra fish, Mr. Blake said.
The fish are being bred and distributed by two tropical fish wholesalers, Segrest Farms in Gibsonton, Fla., and 5-D Tropical in Plant City, Fla.
Jack Bramlett, vice president of Segrest, said there would be hundreds of thousands of the fish ready to sell and that he expected demand to be strong from tropical fish hobbyists, who are always looking for new varieties.
''I'm sure it's going to be a tremendous rollout from what I'm hearing,'' he said.
But Jennifer Pflugfelder, a spokeswoman for Petsmart, the largest pet supply chain, said the chain would not carry it. She said this was not because the fish were transgenic. Rather, she said, although there have been news reports about glowing fish, ''We just haven't had any demand from our customers at all.''