AquAdvantage salmon

AquAdvantage salmon is a genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon developed by AquaBounty Technologies in 1989. A growth hormone-regulating gene from Pacific Chinook salmon, with a promoter gene from ocean pout, were added to the Atlantic salmon's genes (Tillmann, 2016, Bondar 2010). These two genes enable the GM salmon to grow year-round instead of only during spring and summer. AquAdvantage salmon is a genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon developed by AquaBounty Technologies in 1989. A growth hormone-regulating gene from Pacific Chinook salmon, with a promoter gene from ocean pout, were added to the Atlantic salmon's genes (Tillmann, 2016, Bondar 2010). These two genes enable the GM salmon to grow year-round instead of only during spring and summer. GM salmon are a commercially competitive alternative to wild-caught salmon and to fish farming of unmodified salmon. The purpose of the modifications is to increase the speed at which the fish grows without affecting its ultimate size or other qualities. GM fish grows to market size in 16 to 18 months rather than three years. The latter figure refers to fish-farmed Atlantic salmon whose growth rates had already been improved over wild fish as a result of traditional selective breeding practices. AquAdvantage salmon were developed in 1989 by the addition of a single copy of the opAFP-GHc2 construct, which consists of a promoter sequence from ocean pout directing production of a growth hormone protein using the coding sequence from Chinook salmon.:vii, 8 The continuous expression of this transgene allows the fish to grow year-round instead of only during spring and summer. The stability of the new DNA construct was tested, revealing no additional mutational effects during insertion other than the two desired genes. These GM fish were back-crossed (a two generation breeding protocol that starts by generating a hybrid offspring between two inbred strains, one of them carrying the mutation of interest) to wild-type Atlantic salmon, and the genetically modified EO-1ɑ gene sequence was identical in the second through fourth generations, indicating that the insertion is stable. While wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) have two sets of chromosomes, raised AquaAdvantage salmon have three sets (i.e. are triploid). Induction of triploidy by treatment of eggs renders the fish sterile, reducing the risk of interbreeding with wild-type fish if any of the genetically modified fish were introduced into the wild. AquAdvantage built a 100-ton/year aquaculture facility in Panama. Aquaculture that uses conventionally bred salmon, mostly Atlantic salmon, cultivates the fish in net pens. In North America, this occurs mostly in coastal waters off Washington, British Columbia, and Maine. However, the application for FDA approval of AquAdvantage salmon specified land-based tank cultivation with no ocean involvement. To address the concern about biological containment, the FDA requires AquaBounty to take extra precautionary measures to ensure transgenic fish cannot get into wild fish population in the ocean (Fox 2015, Bruce 2017). AquaBounty altered the fish to be only female and only sterile, the latter by treating the eggs to create triploid genes (Fox 2010, Benfey 2016) rendering these females sterile. Male fish are created only for egg-producing service, and are kept in secure, land-based facilities in Canada. (Muir 1999). AquAdvantage salmon eggs are treated with pressure, to create batches of fish eggs with three copies of each chromosome compared to two copies (diploid). Any batch that contains 5 percent or more diploid fish, is destroyed because these diploid fish are capable of reproducing. (Animal Production FAO, 2018) there are serious ecological and economic implications occur when stock fish escape from ocean-pens into native fish species’ ecosystems (Mapes, 2018). The AquaBounty AquAdvantage triploid fish are also, higher quality meat because they do not divert energy to reproduction, as a diploid fish would, instead use the energy to grow after maturity (Benfey, 2016). AquaBounty takes extra precautionary measures to ensure better security using physical containment to reduce even further any transgenic interbreed with wild Atlantic salmon (Jeffery L Fox, 2010). The AquaBounty transgenic Salmon are only allowed to be raised in two land-bases tanks at two sites in Canada and Panama (Tizard et al., 2016). The fact that AquaBounty fish eggs will be produced in a land-based fresh-water research facility on Prince Edward Island in Canada, makes the cases that these AquaBounty salmon, are still salmon, and salmon hatch and develop in freshwater then swim to salt water to spawn when they reach adulthood (B. Josson, N. Jonsson,1993) so if eggs were to escape this facility, they would be unable to survive in the high salinity water nearby. These eggs are then shipped to a land-based aquaculture facility at high altitude in Panama near a river that drains into the Pacific Ocean. the facility is thousands of miles (120 km) away from the nearest Atlantic Salmon wild populations (Gallegos, 2017; Upton, Cowan, 2015). It is here, the eggs hatch and grow to market size (B. Josson, N. Jonsson,1993). Most of the water in the drainage river into the ocean is unsuitable for salmon to survive, and is constricted by dams that act as barriers. It is extremely unlikely that one of the 1.2 percent diploid fish (Benfey, 2016), would successfully navigate the dam barriers and survive the lethal waters and reach the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles away (Gallegos, 2017; Upton, Cowan, 2015).