Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Science Branch
Office of Biotechnology

Genetically Engineered Livestock Feeds Derived from Plants: Assessment and Safety

Can GE livestock feed affect human food or health?

Since genetically engineered (GE) crops were first approved for use, millions of livestock have eaten genetically engineered (GE) feed ingredients. Consumers may have the following questions.

• Do GE feed ingredients affect animal health and productivity?
• Does eating products from livestock that consume GE feed (for example, such as milk, meat, and eggs) affect human health?
• Do GE ingredients approved for livestock feed get into human food?

Before we address the issue of GE or novel feed, let’s first look at how livestock feed is regulated in Canada and what defines a novel feed.

What is livestock feed and how is it regulated?

Livestock feeds are any substance or mixture of substances intended for consumption by livestock. This definition includes novel feeds. Only ingredients approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) may be used in livestock feed.

The CFIA administers a national livestock feed program, under the authority of the federal Feeds Act and Feeds Regulations. Its aim is to verify the safety and effectiveness of all livestock feeds (including those made from GE ingredients) that are manufactured and sold in Canada, or imported. Safe, effective feeds contribute to healthy, productive livestock and safe animal products for consumers.

What are novel feeds?

Novel feeds are made from plants, micro-organisms, or animals—or their products or byproducts—that have not already been approved as livestock feed in Canada, or are listed in the Feeds Regulations but contain a novel trait.

This factsheet deals with novel feeds made from plants, specifically novel feeds derived through genetic engineering. For more information on the meaning of "genetically engineered" (GE), "genetically modified" (GM), and "novel", see the factsheet "Biotechnology? Modern Biotechnology? GM? GMO? GE? PNTs? What do these terms mean?".

What is a novel trait?

A novel trait is an intentional genetic change that results in a feed that is not substantially equivalent in terms of use and safety to a similar feed, as described in the Feeds Regulations. The genetic change may be created by methods such as traditional breeding, mutagenesis, cell fusion, or recombinant DNA techniques.

Novel feeds include:

• microbial products, such as preservative and nutritional inoculants for forage feeds, and fermentation products,
• plants with novel traits and plants with no history of use as feed, and
• products/by-products of biotechnology-derived animals.

Who determines whether novel feeds are safe?

Before a novel feed can be used in Canada, it must first be assessed by the CFIA’s Feed Section to determine its safety for the following:

• livestock,
• humans, through consumption of animal products or through exposure to the feed (for example, to workers or bystanders), and
• the environment.

The developer of the feed must submit evidence to the CFIA that the novel feed is not harmful to livestock, to people consuming food, nor to workers or bystanders.

How are novel feeds assessed?

For novel feeds made from plants where a novel trait has been introduced, the assessment focuses on the safety of the introduced novel trait. The assessment first examines the gene and the protein that results from it, the plant itself, and then looks at what happens to the protein.

The properties of novel feeds are often compared with those of existing plant crops, which are considered safe by a long history of safe use. This helps identify similarities and differences (molecular, compositional, nutritional, and toxicological) between conventional and novel plant crops. Scientists also assess whether or not a toxin or allergen has been unintentionally introduced.

If the feed being developed is just for livestock, and is likely to be eaten only by livestock, then it requires approval from the CFIA Feed Section

• at the research and development stages, before the feeding trial, and
• before use/commercialization (release).

However, if a novel feed is made from a crop that may potentially be used in human food or may be released into the environment, it will not be authorized for livestock feed until it is approved by the Feed Section and:

• the Plant Biosafety Office of the CFIA authorizes the plant for environmental release, and
• the Novel Foods Section of Health Canada provides notification that there is no objection to using it for human food.

How do we know that a gene in a novel feed doesn’t pose a risk to animal or human health?

Although the CFIA verifies the safety of novel feeds before they ever reach the marketplace, people may still wonder what happens to this DNA or genetic material once an animal eats it.

It’s virtually impossible for an intact plant protein in feed to survive processing (including grinding and cooking) as well as an animal’s digestive system. Processing destroys the complex structure of proteins to some degree before the animal even eats the feed. Once an animal consumes the feed, the digestive process breaks proteins down even further so that they can be used by the animal.

Scientific research to date has concluded that the normal processes of digestion in both ruminants (animals with more than one stomach) and non-ruminants appear to be more than adequate to prevent any intact proteins from being absorbed across the intestinal wall. To date, no transgenic proteins have been found in the milk, meat and eggs from animals that have consumed novel feeds. A discussion of such research can be found in the document Considerations for the Safety Assessment of Animal Feedstuffs Derived from Genetically Modified Plants, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Fragments of plant DNA from conventionally-bred plants (that is, non-genetically engineered) have been detected in animal tissues and it is likely that fragments of transgenic DNA may be detected in tissues of animals fed GE plants. There is no evidence, however, that plant DNA—from genetically engineered or conventionally bred plants—integrates into the genetic material of the animal.

What if a gene did survive intact?

Even if genes did survive both processing and an animal’s digestive system (and there is no evidence to suggest they can), the human body doesn’t absorb intact genes. When we eat our food, our body breaks it down into its various components (peptides, sugars, etc.)

The World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations have stated that the consumption of DNA from any source—including plants improved through biotechnology—is safe and does not pose a risk to human health. This conclusion is based on the long history of safe consumption of DNA.

The CFIA and Health Canada continue to work together to assess the safety of livestock feeds for animals, people, and the environment.