-
Cows grazing - Source: Thinkstock -
Related
New Zealand scientists who want to genetically engineer white clover to reduce the methane emissions from livestock such as cows and sheep by 10% say they will have the GE work done overseas.
"The technology has significant value for New Zealand, but in the current regulatory environment, some of the work will continue with partners offshore," AgResearch said last night.
The state-owned science company has recently run into regulatory problems over wide-ranging applications to genetically engineer livestock to produce high-value proteins in milk.
AgResearch science manager Jimmy Suttie said no decision had yet been made on where the clover research would be done offshore.
"We'll be continuing to do some work overseas, and then bringing that back to New Zealand at an appropriate time," he said.
Other New Zealand researchers have carried out controversial GE experiments and trials offshore, including on ryegrass genetically engineered for improved drought resistance.
When Auckland University researchers needed to create a sheep "model" engineered to get Huntington's disease, the sheep were bred in Adelaide because the scientists said they could not afford to get regulatory approval for the project in New Zealand. Researcher Dr Russell Snell said at the time that AgResearch was keen to do the work, but getting approval was likely to take too long and cost up to $300,000.
In the clover work, AgResearch and scientists from one of its subsidiaries, Grasslanz Technology Ltd, are aiming to "switch on" a gene in white clover to give cows and sheep extra protein, reduce emissions of methane and nitrogen waste, and improve animal health.
Though the state science company said last night that the work "may result in clovers which have not been genetically modified". Suttie told NZPA the white clover would be genetically engineered, though only with genetic material from other clover species.
Livestock "burps" produce about 90% of the methane that makes up 43% of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions, but farmers have refused to be accountable for these emissions on the grounds that there are no effective tools to control methane generated by micro-organisms in the animal digestive systems.
AgResearch scientists have previously shown that condensed tannins - chemical compounds that are able to bind to and protect protein being broken down early in digestion - can directly reduce methane emissions when livestock eat them in forage plants such as found in some pasture species, such as lotus, a legume. But such plants can be difficult to establish and keep growing in grazed pastures.
Dr Chris Jones, the section manager of forage biotechnology with Grasslanz in Palmerston North, said last year that GE technology was the only way to develop clover traits to reduce methane emissions.
"If you don't deliver a step change, there is no point in doing it because of the cost of the science and the regulatory environment," he said.
Should there be an acceptance of the technology and it cleared all the regulatory hurdles, Jones said it could be 2018 before the technology was commercially available.
