MARLON

Monitoring of Animals for Feed-related Risks in the Long Term

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'While there are many European scientific activities for each of the items related to either animal health or the occurrence of GM ingredients in animal feed, the proposed MARLON project will be unique in bringing these widely different fields of scientific expertise together for the cross-disciplinary task of developing an epidemiological model for the case-specific monitoring of potential health impacts of GM animal feeds in livestock. More specifically, the proposed MARLON project will create an inventory of which epidemiological and monitoring initiatives exist, both within and outside the EU, which could provide useful data for the purpose of monitoring for health impacts of animal feeds, in particular those containing GM ingredients, on livestock animals. It will also collate, in a systematized manner, information on the factors that have to be considered when developing an epidemiological model specifically geared towards this purpose. These factors include 1) the possibility to determine the exposure of animals to GM feed ingredients, 2) the health indicators that have to be considered for particular cases of health impacts identified during pre-market risk assessment of the GMOs, 3) the characteristics of the animal feed and livestock production chains. The project also will develop an epidemiological model specifically geared towards establishing links between measured health effects in livestock and their intake of GM ingredients from animal feed. As previously stated, there are many activities in the EU focusing on the specific items that together constitute the cross-disciplinary research within the proposed MARLON project, but so far none of them has done this in its totality for the specific purpose of linking health impacts in livestock to GM feed consumption. The proposed MARLON project is to take stock of these initiatives and assess the applicability of the data collected and/or generated by them for the purpose of case-specific monitoring.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Researchers are developing tools and guidelines to monitor the long-term health of animals exposed to feed derived from genetically modified (GM) crops.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

GM crops grown outside of Europe are often destined for several EU markets, including animal husbandry, for which they are processed into animal feed. The EU approves of using GM-derived ingredients only if each crop passes vigorous safety assessments. European regulators may still require post-market monitoring as a means of verifying pre-market assumptions. So far, this requirement not been imposed for GM animal feeds, yet it would be useful for the regulators to be able provide the appropriate tools and data to support such a requirement in future.

The EU-funded 'Monitoring of animals for feed-related risks in the long term' (http://web.spi.pt/marlon/ (MARLON)) project aims to provide guidance for monitoring GM feed-related risks in livestock.

To address any potential links between using GM-derived feed and animal health risks, MARLON is creating inventories of existing post-market monitoring initiatives and gathering data on potential animal health impacts of GM feeds. Researchers are also collating information on, for example, measurable animal health indicators and how to analyse exposure. Besides an http://ipafeed.eu/ (open-access database), MARLON scientists are also developing a model to improve future monitoring by predicting the likelihood that a given health effect can be picked up by current monitoring systems in a particular livestock species taking into account the specific conditions of background prevalence of this effect as well as husbandry, veterinary, and monitoring practices.

Data collected from controlled short-term, long-term and multi-generational feeding trials so far generally point to no adverse health effects on animals fed GM ingredients. Some effects may even be positive: several reports indicate, for example, that insect-resistant GM crops may contain lower levels of toxic chemicals produced by fungi that colonise insect-damaged crops.

These data highlight the importance of post-market surveillance and monitoring to identify both positive and negative trends in animal health. By providing tools to measure such effects in livestock fed with GM ingredients, MARLON will help inform European regulators in their decision-making process.