Expert to boycott 'farcical' GE milk hearing

11.50am

A biology specialist says he will boycott an Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) hearing in Hamilton today of an application to develop genetically engineered milk because Erma has a record of "rubber-stamping" procedures.

Peter Wills, an associate professor at Auckland University's physics department, said crown science company Agresearch's application to develop transgenic cattle producing genetically engineered milk lacked details of gene construction, proteins to be used, and effects of the research on cows.

"What they're trying to achieve is far too wide-ranging in the terms it has specified in the application for Erma to really make any judgment."

More than 850 people have objected to the application, but few are expected to attend the three-day public hearing.

Dr Wills said Erma hearings tended to degenerate into "farce" because non-experts often expressed concerns that had no scientific support.

He said Erma had a record of "rubber stamping" procedure and ignoring opposing views to applications.

The Agresearch application is effectively an extension of work approved in 1999 for three types of genetic engineering.

Two related to adding or deleting cow genes to change the composition of cows' milk for food production. The third involved the controversial insertion of the human protein, myelin basic protein.

Agresearch faced strong opposition from some critics of the technology, particularly over the use of human genetic sequences in cows.

Scientists predicted trials would take five years and it would be at least 10 years before the project could become commercial.

Agresearch has said its plan is "to develop transgenic cattle that can express functional therapeutic foreign proteins in their milk, and to develop transgenic cattle to study gene function and genetic performance".

It now wants to be able to put copies of cattle, sheep, goat, deer, mice and human genes into cattle, but is not applying for field tests.

It told Erma the application was on a "project" basis to allow it to change the experimental work as it produced results, without requiring fresh approval.

The development work would largely be in laboratories, but some calves would need to be kept in a regulated containment farm, with outdoor pastures.

The animals were not planned for use in normal commercial reproduction and no transgenic cattle or their products would enter the human food chain.

- NZPA

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