Biologists Association Severe deficiencies in gene corn study

Biologists Association sees serious shortcomings in the study to GM corn

22/09/2012

The French study on genetically modified corn, recently published in the journal "Food and Chemical Toxicology", has serious shortcomings, according to German biologists. According to the French study, rats fed on GM maize GMO Monsanto over a longer period of time should have died much earlier than animals that did not eat GM maize.

Statistical approach of the GM maize study unreasonable
„Both the choice of animals and the static approach, the study design is not justifiable“, explained Professor Diethard Tautz, Vice President of the Association of Biology, Biosciences and Biomedicine in Germany (Vbio). „The whirlwind caused by the publication is in no way adequate, and claims for immediate consequences can not be justified“, reports the geneticist from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön.

The French researchers led by Gilles-Eric Seralini, a professor at the University of Caen and an expert on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food, had observed 200 rats over a two-year period. The animals were divided into three groups: the first group received the GM maize NK603 from Monsanto, the second was fed the same GM maize strain, which was supplemented with the pesticide „Roundup“ was treated. The third group ate conventional corn which was also sprayed with the pesticide.

According to the French researchers, "GM-fed rats died much younger and became more likely to become cancerous." After 17 months, five times more rats had died in the GM corn group than in the group fed conventional corn. The study has shown that "most female animals suffer from breast cancer and male rats often have skin or kidney tumors." Seralini spoke of alarming results. As the expert explained, the maize would be so genetically manipulated that it would be tolerant to pesticides or even produce its own.

Biologists sharply criticize GM maize research
According to the Association VBio, the tumors that occurred in the GM-fed rats are typical of the rat strain used. In addition, the number of laboratory animals had been too low to obtain representative results. In a previous study of 3,000 rats, about half of the animals died within two years due to tumors or other diseases listed by Seralini, the association said.

Even the subgroups that had formed the French researchers were too small with only ten animals to make statistical statements. „Overall, the data presented indicate that nothing else than statistical fluctuations were measured in the experiment, "states a VBio communication saying that, for example, no dose-dependency of the effect was taken into account Life sciences combined.

However, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), GM maize NK 603 is authorized in the EU as a raw material for processing in, for example, the food industry, but cultivation is prohibited. So far, the authority has not yet commented on the study. (Ag)

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Picture: Verena Münch