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On 20/07/02 Software Scientific's Concept Engine TM read 249 documents and considered 4,849 links. From documents of any date using deep mining.
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| IC9826.ASMi The resistance may be caused by the use of other compounds that select for the same resistance genes, according to a researcher from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands 9/25/98 38th INTERSCIENCE CONFERENCE ON ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS & CHEMOTHERAPYSEPT 24-27, 1998, SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIACONTACT: JIM SLIWA, jsliwa@asmusa.orgUsage of Antimicrobial Growth Promoters in Food Animals Poses..............:-,-,, --:. Antibiotics are, however, not only used in human & veterinary medicine, but approx 50% of the world production is fed to health food animals on a free sale basis to improve nutritional efficiency. That the intestinal flora of man & other animals is the largest pool of resistance genes & that resistant bacteria or their genes can cross species barriers, has been illustrated in several studies in which the same resistant bacteria have been found in the instestinal flora of humans in direct or indirect, via the food chain, contact with these animals. Moreover the same resistant genes could also be detected in food poisoning bacteria & strictly human pathogens. In North European countries with a low vancomycin in humans, that permitted the usage of avoparcin, a glycopeptide like vancomycin. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) aren't only found in the intestinal flora of animals exposed to the drug, but are alo common in healthy humans. Resistance aginst newly developed antibiotics like Synercid & Ziracin is already common before these antibiotics have been used, as large amounts of closely related & cross-resistance-conferring molecules like virginiamycin & avilamycin have been fed to animals. Another threat is that these bacteria might transfer their resistance genes to other bacteria like the MRSA. As resistant bacteria of food animals pose a public health risk, a low prevalence of resistance in the fecal flora of these animals should be considered a quality & safety mark for these animals. |
| Impacts: Genetic Engineering: Greenpeace USA
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| True Food Network | GMO FACTSi
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| Health Implications of Genetically Modified Foods
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| the genetiX snowball campaign - statements - Kathryn Tulipi Although there has so far been limited exposure of humans to GM foods there is already evidence of risks to human health. Due to the unpredictable pattern of gene expression & function there is the potential for the production of unexpected proteins & novel toxins in GM food crops. i Genetic modification of food crops involves the transfer of a foreign gene into the host plant cell by a carrier, known as a vector, eg ? a virus or other infectious agent. While natural vectors respect species barriers, the artificial vectors made by genetic engineers are designed to cross these barriers, thus greatly enhancing the potential for creating new & possibly more virulent viral & bacterial pathogens which can in turn infect humans & animals. i There is growing concern that the use of antibiotic resistance marker genes in GM crops will exacerbate the already serious problem of antibiotic resistant infectious disease , eg ? by the spread of antibiotic resistance to human & animal gut microorganisms after eating GM crops. i Genes move between plants by cross-pollination-a process known as horizontal gene transfer . GM oil seed rape,..., has been shown to cross pollinate with ordinary oil seed rape growing 2.5 km away from the GM crop. i I believe the land & crops to be in immediate need of protection as the GM plants are just about to flower & the GM pollen will cross pollinate with neighbouring crops, causing transfer of genes from the GM crop to the neighbouring land & crops. i |
| Engineered Genes for Dinner
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| Biotechinfo.ie - Biotech in Action: GM Food
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| "http: //www. biotechinfo. ie/ content/ print_ friendly. asp? section_ id= 29& language_ id= 1"i i The big difference between modern biotechnology (which includes GM) & earlier cross breeding methods is that now with GM genes can be transferred from animal species to plant species & vice versa - something that did not previously happen within nature. However, by putting the growth hormone gene under the control of a gene?? i However, progress is slow due to consumer concerns about 'gene flow' - the possibility that GM foods might be passed onto humans. Despite the fact that scientists have disproved the notion of 'gene flow' in humans, & that scientific evidence suggests that these foods are safe for consumption, consumers remain skeptical. i i Currently the Novel Foods Directive legislates for labelling foods with 1% GM material & over. However when some foods are processed or refined & proteins are broken down it becomes impossible to test whether that food ingredient came from a GM source or not. i Many consumer organizations in Ireland including the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, supermarkets, & Consumers Association of Ireland, feel the new law should also provide that foods with less than 1% GM content (...) material are labelled as GM foods. The new law is to cover food destined for both human & animal consumption. |
| The Environmental Literacy Council - Biotechnology
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| NFSD: Biotechnology and Foodi
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| Human Genome News
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| DECLARATION OF RABBI ALAN GREENi These laws govern my choice, preparation & consumption of food. They specifically prohibit certain types of foods, food additives & ingredients, including those containing substances from insects & certain types of animals. i I am informed that several types of food-producing plants have been engineered to contain genetic material from insects & that some researchers have even spliced human genes into plants. As the FDA doesn't require pre-market notification & labeling of genetically engineered foods, I & my family don't know for sure whether these foods are still in developmental stages or are already on supermarket shelves. Further, not only do the Hebrew scriptures impell my religious objections to foods containing genes from prohibited species, they -- along with rabbinical tradition -- prompt me to avoid all genetically engineered foods in general, even if the food doesn't contain genes from species that are specifically prohibited. i I further believe that the way in which recombinant DNA technology is currently being employed in food production is truly an extreme disruption of these natural boundaries & that its products are in general imbued with a spiritually degraded energy which remains with substances derived from the whole organism & transfers with them into other foods in which they become ingredients. i No other technique can fuse genes from vastly different species; none other consistently creates such disturbance to the DNA of the involved organism(s); none other relies upon promoters from viruses to drive expression of the transferred genetic material (...). As the defendants don't require the labeling of genetically engineered foods, its ? difficult for me to know whether the foods that I am buying, preparing & consuming (...) are in keeping with my beliefs. i |
| True Food Network | GMO FACTSi
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| "http: //www. iol. ie/ ~plugin/ badfoods. htm"i It would make sense if everyone could find exactly WHAT they a re eating, before it's too late & irreversible damage is done to the human food chain - if it hasn't already, that is. i Decent, wholesome food is the right of every human being - & of every animal. Many scientists are becoming increasingly worried about the 'Doomsday Scenario' genetically engineered foods could create - with basic foodstuffs becoming dangerous, GE (...) foods could wipe out the human race, instead of being a solution to feed starving & undernourished world populations. i i If this gene is taken up by disease bearing organisms in the human body, those organisms would also become immune to ampicillan - in other words,antibiotics now used to control disease & infection in human beings & animals won't work any more . Of course, once the pesticide is 'inside' ALL the potatoes which are grown, then if it proves harmful to humans or mutates in any other way, ALL potatoes will be useless as food.
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| CDC - The Antibiotic Food-Chain Gang
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| Basic Information Page...
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| Simply News - The Risks of Genetic Engineeringi We gawk at movies about attempts to create a race of super-humans gone terribly awry. Today, an estimated 60-70 % of all packaged food on American grocery store shelves contains genetically altered ingredients. None of the federal agencies which regulate food production--the Food & Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture or the Environmental Protection Agency--requires genetically engineered products to be labeled, violating consumers' rights to avoid them. Although long term effects aren't yet known, we can anticipate that eventually, through cross-pollination & natural selection, insects & weeds will likewise become resistant to the pesticide & herbicide altered plants. A growing fear among organic farmers is the genetic splicing of the Bt (...) bacterial genes into seeds. As plants which contain the Bt genes--eg ? Monsanto's "New Leaf Superior" potato--are being widely cultivated, insect resistance will likely occur quickly. Through natural cross-pollination, the new traits developed through gene splicing can be carried into surrounding fields & wild areas. i We are equally unaware of the long-term affects on humans & animals who consume genetically altered food. i |
| Gene technology and plants-Key text
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| Austin Chronicle: Most Commonly Altered Crops
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| Genetically Modified Crops: Not "in England's Green and Pleasant Land"?i 3, March 1999) we reported on the public controversy surrounding genetically modified crops & food products in the UK ? . Campaigns to ban or delay the introduction of genetically modified food products are supported by some of the big newspapers in the U.K.Here is a guest article that appeared in an earlier version in the Wall Street Journal Europe. The techniques for selecting GM plants don't rely on the human eye & stomach for guidance to nearly the same degree as conventional cross-breeding: marker genes & molecular & compositional analysis of plants make selection far easier & more precise. In addition, the characteristics of the particular gene being inserted into the plant are established using complex techniques eg ? polymerase chain reaction & gene sequencing, which ensures that they are well known prior to insertion. i Had the adventurous apiarists who created the Africanized honeybee been able to identify & successfully insert the gene from the African bee that encodes for high honey production, they would have been able to produce a high-output European honey bee instead of an aggressive cross-breed. i By contrast, the modern techniques of genetic modification that have been in use since 1983 are precise & predictable: a gold pellet containing the desired gene from plant (...) B is fired into the chromosome of plant A. In addition, a "marker" gene is added which creates resistance either to an herbicide or a toxic antibiotic so that when the plants are sprayed with these substances only those that have the new gene will survive,..... Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, & several other activist groups raise the alarm that GM crops' genes will "drift" onto crops grown conventionally & cross-pollinate them. i In fact, so stringent are they that people are almost certainly better off buying GM foods than foods that have been developed using conventional techniques. i |
| What is GM? | About GM | Genetic modification in New ZealandGM in NZ | Control of GM | GM research | Medicines | Food | Royal Commission on GM | What next? | i Genes can be altered, switched on or off, or moved between unrelated species.Genetic modification means that for the 1st time humans can make living things to our own design, without relying on nature. A ‘genetically modified organism’ is a plant, animal, insect or micro-organism whose genetic make-up has been changed using modern gene technology, eg ? , by adding new genes or changing the function of genes already present. New genes may come from the same or different species or may be synthetic. A ‘genetically modified organism’ is a living thing that can grow & reproduce, & can pass on its modified genes to its offspring. i Humans have about 35,000 genes, but about 99 % of our genes are shared with chimpanzees, & about 80 % are shared with other mammals eg ? mice & sheep. i
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| Department of Food Science and Technology List of Publications 1999
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| Do Plants Have More Genes the Humans?
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| Biotechnology & Foodi Humans get food by hunting & gathering wild animals, plants or microbes, or by domesticating animals into livestock or cultivating plants into crops & developing microbes into microbial cultures (...). i Humans select or develop crops, livestock & microbial cultures based on traits favorable to humans. i To generate better varieties of crops, livestock & microbes, humans can manipulate the genes, humans can modify the environment, or humans can modify both the genes & the environment. i Genetic variation is expressed in the term "gene pool": all the genes available to a breeder useful in improving a breed through generating combinations of genes that result in superior traits. i Until 1973, the gene pool for a corn breeder was limited to corn & its close relatives that could cross-pollinate with it. i The changing & moving of DNA, that is, the changing & moving of genes, by nature alone or by the hands of humans present risks of changing the traits for ill as well as for good. i Succinctly, foods from gene-spliced crops are as safe as foods from conventionally-bred crops, for the same trait. i |
| Selective Breeding & Inbreeding Depression
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| Institute of Food Science & Technology: BSE/vCJDBOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) & VARIANT CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE (vCJD) IN HUMANS
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| VITAMINC.VTULibrary: MED Keywords: VITAMIN C, PLANTS, GENE, FOOD, HYBRIDIZATION Description: Someday maybe a salad will be just as rich in vitamin C as a glass of orange juice since genes from a rat have been found to increase the vitamin in lettuce. Rat Genes Increase Vitamin C in PlantsGenes from the lowly rat may hold the key to increasing Vitamin C in the world's food supply. Craig Nessler, head of plant physiology, pathology, & weed science at Virginia Tech, has found that by transferring certain rat genes into lettuce, he can turn on the plant's latent Vitamin-C-producing pathway. i He & his colleagues are using what they've learned from the rat-gene work to try to discover other ways to stimulate the Vitamin C gene in lettuce & other plants.Nessler chose to use rats in his research as the gene was readily available & rodents are natural producers of Vitamin C."The reason sailors on their way to the new world got scurvy while rats thrived was as humans have lost the ability we once had to make our own Vitamin C, while rats have retained it," he explains. Humans still have the gene, but a genetic defect has rendered it inoperative. i Shortly after he & his colleagues had successfully introduced the gene into lettuce, another scientist's paper stated that plant & animal biochemical pathways differed so much that animal genes could not work in plants. i |
| Genetics and plant biotechnologyi The basic mechanisms for inheritance are remarkably similar for most organisms: whether we consider flower shape or a person’s eye colour, the characteristics are determined by genes, passed from parent to offspring. Genes – the code of life Genes are the blueprint or code for inheritable characteristics, which usually means they direct the production of specific proteins. Genes control all of life’s processes, & they therefore need to work properly. i The individuality & function of a gene are determined by the number of these building blocks, & the particular order in which they are strung together – this is known as the sequence of the gene. i The ability to manipulate individual genes is what distinguishes genetic modification from conventional breeding, whereby all the genes of both parent plants are randomly mixed & sorted. Improving crops: genetic modification versus plant breeding Ever since our ancestors changed from being ‘hunter-gatherers’ to farmers, in an attempt to ensure a more reliable food supply, humans have been modifying the genetic make-up of crop plants to provide tastier, more nutritious & more plentiful crops. i However, as cross-breeding involves a random mixing & sorting of genes from both parental plants, this is a slow process. i |
| hudsonvalleyfood.com - Food and Your Health
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