The US Food and Drug Administration has greenlighted CRISPR gene-edited pigs, engineered to resist the respiratory virus known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, or PRRS, for consumption in the US. The virus thrives on intensive factory farms and kills piglets in the womb. The pigs were developed by the British company Genus. After the approval, the company’s stock value jumped up by a couple of hundred million dollars on the London Stock Exchange. According to Matt Culbertson, chief operating office of the Pig Improvement Company, a Genus subsidiary, the pigs appear entirely immune to more than 99% of the known versions of the PRRS virus, although there is one rare subtype that may break through the protection. Culbertson says gene-edited pork could appear in the US market sometime next year. He says the company does not think the meat will need to carry any label identifying it as GM. "We aren't aware of any labelling requirement," Culbertson says. MIT Technology Review (paywall)

 

 

We don't expect the genetically engineered virus resistance – which even now is leaky – to last long in the gene-edited pigs. We saw in the COVID pandemic just how quickly viruses mutate to evade any barrier placed in their path. The genetically altered pigs will drive the evolution of mutations in the virus that enable it to break through the engineered virus resistance – potentially leading to the emergence of even more virulent strains of the virus. GMWatch (no link in header)

 

 

On 29 April 2025, as the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations were making their way through parliament, a group of experts gathered virtually at a Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum conference to discuss the next steps for gene editing in the UK. The panellists included stakeholders from government, industry, research institutes, law firms, NGOs and a plant breeding lobbying organisation. The range of interests represented and willingness to take questions from the floor made for a far-reaching discussion, which highlighted a number of challenges in relation to gene editing and the regulatory framework that will govern it. Leonie Nimmo of GM Freeze discusses some of the issues raised, including labelling and public opinion, trade disruptions, risks, patents, nutritional impacts, contamination, and challenges with the technology. GM Freeze

 

 

On 28 April Green peer Natalie Bennett spoke in the House of Lords about the boosterish report on synthetic biology from the UK government's Science and Technology Committee, "Don’t fail to scale: seizing the opportunity of engineering biology". She criticised the report's lack of "focus on the general systemic risks of messing around with an immensely complex biological system, about which we are, to compare with the education of a child, around early to middle primary in our understanding. We have just about mastered basic mental arithmetic, while life is operating at the level of the most sophisticated maths professor. Synthetic biology is mucking with systems that we just do not understand." Natalie Bennett's website

 

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