Genetically engineered equine flu vaccine
I wrote a couple weeks ago about the potential release of a live GE virus into New Zealand to cure horse flu, thinking there would be more details and discussion occurring on this issue soon thereafter. But things have gone eerily quiet. I know New Zealand’s Anti GE networks will be outraged that a live GE virus could be released basically for the benefit of Australasia’s gambling industry.
It seems incredible that New Zealand, with our experience of the rabbit and the opossum, could be countenancing introducing a genetically engineered organism on to our shores without greater thought into the long term consequences. If we have to release any GE organism into the country, why pick an invisible little virus that we can’t track down if we need to. My choice would have been a GE elephant.
All the threats that genetic engineering poses to our environment are relevant to this vaccine. One of the most pertinent is probably that of horizontal gene transfer. Horizontal gene transfer where the genetic material from the cells or genomes of one species jumps across to another unrelated species, by a process other than usual reproduction.
It is incredibly threatening because horizontal gene transfer has the potential to create new viruses and bacteria that cause diseases and spread drug and antibiotic resistance. Luckily it doesn’t really happen to animals that much in nature. But it does happen in genetic engineering. In fact that is basically what genetic engineering is. And worse, there is a possibility that once scientists have broken down the walls between species that prevent horizontal gene transfer the genes might find it easier to replicate this jumping between species outside of the science lab.
As Dr Mae-Wan Ho says;
In order to overcome natural species barriers limiting gene transfer and maintenance, genetic engineers have made a huge variety of artificial vectors (carriers of genes) by combining parts of the most infectious natural vectors - viruses, plasmids and transposons - from different sources. These artificial vectors generally have their disease-causing functions removed or disabled, but are designed to cross wide species barriers, so the same vector may now transfer, say, human genes spliced into the vector, to the genomes of all other mammals, or of plants. Artificial vectors greatly enhance horizontal gene transfer.
