is there a danger in feeding biotech corn to cattle?

Question

Is it possible for an artificial genetic feed to result in the activation of a dormant gene in the intestinal tract of the cow and produce
an untoward effect on the animal?
A horizontal transgenetic gene transfer?

Answer 1

Genetic transfer to the cow is certainly a non-issue. Mammal genes almost never accept new biological data, and if they do, they usually can't use it. Moreover, the cow does not actually digest the feed. Bacteria in the stomach of the cow digests the feed, and then the cow digests the bacteria. Worrying about Mutant cows from biotech corn is a science fiction scare, on the same order as a godzilla movie. Worrying about meat in the feed is probably a lot more productive.

If you need to worry about biotech feed, and the feed you are using is intended for cows, there are three far more likely problems:

1: Biotech corn is probably designed to have a slightly different chemical makeup, which could interfere with the digestion, and absorbtion by the cow.

2: While mamals are not good at adopting genetic material for their own use, bacteria are. The cow's stomach is host to a lot of bacteria that digest the corn, and this bacteria has a mildly reasonable chance of adopting biotech DNA... However, even here, the concern should be small, since bacterial have been adopting various strings of corn DNA for millenia with no harm done, and the biotech corn is mostly corn DNA with a few bits added in.

3: Corn is wind-pollinated, so biotech corn's pollen could spread to nearby fields of non-biotech corn, producing corn that had some biotech traits, but was not intended to be biotech.

Biotech corn designed with tougher skin to resist insects is probably not a major issue, and biotech corn designed to have more nutrients should be pretty safe. Bacteria doesn't have skin, and cows are designed for roughage. More vitamins and such should just boost growth.

Biotech corn that produces it's own preservatives, or pesticides is a bigger risk. We don't know for sure how they might break down in the cow's stomach, and how they might transfer to the cow's flesh. Also, if a bacteria in the gut of the cow starts using these genes, and becomes successful, the cow's stomach will get filled with preservatives, or pesticides... or some slightly modified perservatives or pesticides.

The third problem, of cross pollination is the real concern, but so long as we make biotech corn that is good for humans to eat, there should be no real problem here, and certainly nothing more serious than what we have now with people trying to grow maize, and popcorn, and hominy and such. Of course, this is not an issue for your cows.

Some corn may be given special biotech genes, such as to make it glow in the dark, or produce plastic, or for making ethanol. This sort of corn is no longer intended for use as feed, and cows should not be chewing on it simply because the chemicals this biotech corn is producing are not intended to be used as feed, and most of this cor is grown in laboratories.

Answer 2

No. Biofeed is merely engineered feed that has more nutrients in it than regular feed. These nutrients are found in abundance in all living organisms. All the traits that corn possesses now COULD be selectively bred into corn, like mankind has been doing for thousands of years... it would just have taken another few thousand years to do what we have accomplished in just a few decades.

There is no horizontal gene transfer, or untoward effect on the livestock.

In fact almost 100% of the hype surrounding non-organic food is complete trash and completely un warranted. Organic food and feeds are merely a gimmick, and there is very little reason to believe that there are any effects down the line, on either the livestock or humans that feed on them. Organic products are merely a way to charge more for what is most likely an inferior product. The reason that people who eat organic foods are healthier, is that these same people are more likely to be health concious, and therefor eat healthy and behave healthily all around... hence the eating organic foods. Therefor, the average health of people who eat organic foods is higher, becaues of their OTHER lifestyle choices, NOT necessarily because they eat organic foods.


Tiger Striped Dog MD

Answer 3

I doubt it. First the genetic make up of corn and cattle are vastly different. Second, cattle stomachs are such hostile environment that it would be difficult for such transfer to take place.

Answer 4

There shouldn't be any problem with that. The real danger is the feed that contains animal by-products from meat processing. That stuff can contain bad stuff, and is one way that mad cow disease was spread.

Answer 5

No,
if this were to happen, we would be gaining genes from everything we eat. Our bodies (and cows) eat and recycle the nucleotides from the foods we eat using enzymes called nucleases.