Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

The UK recently passed a bill that allows animals (including pets) and crops protected from harmful diseases through techniques such as genetic editing, becoming the first country in Europe to pass such a bill.

Wen Jing | Wen Jing

UK: the British government passed a bill called The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) on March 23, the first country in Europe to relax controls on gene editing. The bill will allow farmers to grow drought-resistant and disease-resistant crops to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides and to cultivate animals protected from harmful diseases through techniques such as genetic editing.

With the approval of the bill, the United Kingdom has joined the ranks of countries that allow the commercial application of gene editing breeding technology, following the United States, Japan, Argentina, Australia and so on.

From microorganisms, plants to mammals, we have been familiar with transgenic technology, gene editing technology and so on.

Human insulin, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1982, is the first commercial genetically modified product in the world.

In 1983, the world's first genetically modified plant, herbicide-resistant tobacco, appeared in the United States. Up to now, genetically modified plants have been planted for 40 years. Since then, transgenic technology has been more and more widely used in agriculture. For example, the gene of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) was transferred into cotton, corn, rice and other plants to make it resistant to insects, and the herbicide-tolerant EPSPS gene was transferred into soybean and other crops to make it resistant to herbicides.

The world's first genetically modified fish was born in China, but not commercially available. In 1983, a team led by Zhu Zuoyan of the Institute of Aquatic Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences introduced the recombinant human growth hormone gene into the fertilized eggs of crucian carp to obtain fast-growing transgenic fish.

On November 19, 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the marketing of genetically modified salmon, the world's first food genetically modified fish to be approved for industrialization.

On December 14, 2020, the gene editing pig "GalSafe Pig" developed by Revivicor, an American medical company, was approved by FDA for both edible and medical products.

In 2021, a successful experiment to transplant kidneys from genetically modified pigs into humans sparked a storm of public opinion. In addition to the possible risks in food safety and ecological balance, people also need to consider the ethical issues brought about by transgenic technology.

Focus of controversy: genetic editing of pets can be implemented according to the provisions of the Act, the UK will introduce a new scientific regulatory system to promote research and innovation related to precision breeding while ensuring stricter regulation of genetically modified organisms. The British government is committed to ensuring that animal welfare is protected and that existing animal laws will not be changed until the regulatory system is in place.

Despite such a regulatory guarantee, the controversy over the bill has focused on the inclusion of non-farm animals within the scope of genetic editing.

Pets occupy a special position in people's lives. In modern society, most dogs do not have the responsibility of home care, and there is little need for cats to catch mice. More often, pets play the role of companionship to meet the spiritual and aesthetic needs of breeders.

However, human spiritual needs and aesthetic needs are subjective, which means that if pets are to be genetically modified, the standards of this transformation are inconsistent.

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