Arguing against regulations classifying livestock as drugs, the National Pork Producers Council wants the Food and Drug Administration to yield regulatory oversight to USDA for gene-edited animals raised for food.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue also told farmers …. he would lobby President Donald Trump to make that happen.
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Experts reiterated gene editing is a targeted process that doesn’t necessarily lead to inserting a new gene. Often the focus is to eliminate a gene that is tied to disease susceptibility. Such technology in breeding could lead to reduced antibiotic use by the livestock industry.
FDA regulations, though, treat the genes in gene-edited animals as a pharmaceutical, creating massive regulatory challenges right up to the point of incinerating research animals raised to resist a disease.
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Speaking …. in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told farmers that USDA should have at least some oversight of gene-edited animals.
“When it comes to gene editing, we got the ball on plants, and FDA thinks they have got the ball on animals,” Perdue said. “I’m going to try to persuade the president they need to …. hand it off sometimes.”
Read full, original article: Edit FDA Regulation for Genes
