While Mexico says that it’s waiting on U.S. proof that genetically modified corn is safe for Mexicans, China has approved the safety of a different gene-edited grain: wheat.
The move forward is the first for Beijing, according to Reuters.
“China has approved the safety of gene-edited wheat for the first time as Beijing cautiously moves forward with commercial growing of genetically modified food crops,” Reuters wrote Wednesday.
China is currently the world’s largest wheat producer and consumer. In the past year, Reuters says that the country has begun moving toward approving even more genetically modified crops, such as corn and soybean seeds.
In January, China’s agriculture ministry approved another six varieties of genetically engineered corn, two soybeans, one cotton, and two gene-edited varieties of soybeans, according to the ministry’s website.
Although the move aims to improve food security, the uptake is slower than some had hoped for.
Bloomberg’s Hallie Gu reported in January that “soybean shipments to China climbed 11 percent last year to 99.41 million tons, almost matching the all-time high in 2020, customs data showed this month. Any big jump in the local crop that finds its way into commercial crushing could significantly cut the country’s buying on the global market.”
China is one of the world’s largest agricultural producers and consumers, so its stance on GM crops can influence global markets and policies. As the largest exporter of U.S. agricultural products, the inclusion of more GM-edited crops could have an impact on
Additionally, this move reflects a shift in China’s approach to biotechnology, potentially indicating increased acceptance of GM technology for addressing agricultural challenges such as pests, diseases, and climate change amid growing population pressures and changing dietary preferences.
University of Delaware researchers in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources have made a new discovery in their work on wooden breast syndrome in chickens. The UD team found white blood cells filled with fat surrounding broiler chickens’ veins and showing signs of swelling are key contributing factors to this muscle degeneration disease in these birds that can ultimately affect their meat quality.
Wooden breast syndrome disease is characterized by firm, yellowish breast muscle and is estimated to affect up to 5 percent of a given flock of broiler chickens, rendering meat from those birds tough and chewy — and therefore unmarketable.
The disease may cost U.S. poultry farmers at least $200 million annually. The cause is unknown, but there is speculation the disease results from genetically breeding chickens to have larger breast muscle mass.
In the new research published in Scientific Reports, UD researchers in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences used an emerging technique called spatial transcriptomics to obtain detailed information on what the genes in individual cell types are doing within chicken muscle tissue.
The researchers could see what specific information was encoded in each of the genes in chickens’ various cells. They found white blood cells called lipid-laden macrophages, or “foam cells,” close to chickens’ veins, which are the key cells responsible for altering the breakdown and storage of fats at the onset of wooden breast syndrome.
The findings could help better understand a disease that has puzzled the agricultural industry.
But spatial transcriptomics isn’t only for the birds. What the researchers have discovered with spatial transcriptomics could help advance studies of obesity in humans.
An economic and welfare problem
Chickens with wooden breast syndrome are easy to spot. They often have trouble walking, and their wings are not as flexible, said Behnam Abasht, a professor of animal genetics at UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
“This is a very big economic problem with some welfare aspects involved with this disease,” Abasht said. “Any solution you find that could improve the health of a chicken and also economically help poultry producers would have a big impact.”
Additionally, when chickens don’t have good wing mobility, they may fall over while walking and won’t be able to use their wings to get back up. Erin Brannick, a UD associate professor and veterinary anatomic pathologist, explained that researchers have seen issues where birds will lie down and not want to move. That immobility makes them susceptible to other diseases.
“We really look at this twofold. We want to keep our meat products safe, healthy and meeting consumer demands,” Brannick said. “At the same time, we want to make sure that we’re working in the interest of bird health and making sure that they’re happy, healthy, able to move around and do what a normal broiler chicken would do in eating and intermingling with other birds.”
Abasht and Brannick have collaborated on wooden breast syndrome research for over a decade. Ziqing Wang, now a UD alumna and the first author of the paper, worked on the research as a doctoral candidate under the guidance of Abasht from 2019 through August 2023. Paul Khondowe, lecturer and researcher at the University of Zambia, joined the team as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar hosted by the Abasht laboratory.
Image by Anton Mislawsky, Shutterstock
Decoding gene transcripts
In this latest research, the team examined muscle tissue from three 23-day-old broiler chickens randomly chosen from a UD chicken house.
The researchers froze samples of their muscle tissue and then sliced the hardened tissue into very thin sheets. They took images and examined the samples microscopically for signs of disease while they also analyzed the genes in the muscle tissue. One of the three samples was confirmed to have wooden breast syndrome. In that sample, the researchers found fatty white blood cells, or lipid-laden macrophages, close to the chicken’s veins. They also found foam cells in the two seemingly unaffected samples, indicating that they were beginning to develop wooden breast syndrome.
“Because the lipid-laden macrophages are so close to the veins, it’s possible when they grow in size or quantity it could cause vein occlusion,” Wang said. “The veins are pushed. There’s not enough blood going around, eventually leading to vein inflammation.”
Wang said this could also suggest that lipids coming from the veins “are not properly used.” The lipids could even be triggering inflammation in a chicken’s breast.
The new findings advance the team’s previous findings that an enzyme crucial for fat metabolism may be contributing to wooden breast syndrome.
“Our current findings further supported the importance of a previously identified key-playing gene in wooden breast syndrome, and demonstrated the specific cell types where this gene is expressed,” Wang said.
To the best of the team’s knowledge, Wang said, this work is likely the first one in the world using spatial transcriptomics to study the functional role of specific cell types within the tissue during the development of wooden breast syndrome in chickens, combining the process of turning genes into proteins and RNA and studying tissue anatomy, during the development of wooden breast syndrome in chickens.
“We’re trying to understand this disease better and to maybe try to think of better ways to control this disease, future breeding strategies,” Wang said. “We’re trying to understand what’s really happening.”
Through the research, the team also identified potential wooden breast-specific biomarkers, which could help identify and diagnose the disease early.
“It’s important because it could be specific to this disease or to muscle damage, so that could potentially be further studied,” Wang said. “It could be important for using other techniques to either confirm it or just to further study what these particular genes are doing in the muscle.”
Image by Anton Mislawsky, Shutterstock
Finding a solution
So what is changing metabolically in chickens that do have wooden breast syndrome compared to chickens that don’t have it? In the long term, that is precisely what the research team would like to uncover. With that information, the team could work its way backward and solve the problem of reducing the prevalence of wooden breast syndrome in chicken flocks.
“If we can delay when the disease starts and how severe it gets, that would be an incredible achievement,” Brannick said.
Brannick said some chicken companies have already begun making changes to their breeding practices, taking a different approach to what chickens’ breast muscles should be like.
“Everything new that we learn about this disease will help us reduce how bad it gets or how many birds are affected in the future,” Brannick said. “All of that helps us make more chicken that more people want to eat. It also keeps those birds healthy and happy while they’re growing.”
The research could also have implications for understanding human diseases. Abasht sees applications to the study of obesity, for example.
Lipid-laden macrophages in chicken breast muscles happen where there is a lot of fat in the tissue. This is kind of like what happens in obese people and in the inflammation that comes from fatty deposits in human arteries when fat and cholesterol build up inside of artery walls.
“A breakthrough in animal disease research could create pathways for breakthroughs in human disease research,” Abasht said. “Our study unlocks the potential for other avenues of research.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are now recommending personal protective equipment for livestock workers amid concerns for H5N1 transmission to humans.
The CDC made the request this week, asking state officials to make PPE available for livestock workers amid the spreading avian influenza. Though the risk remains low for the general public, according to the CDC, workers who are in close proximity to livestock, such as dairy farmers, poultry farmers, and slaughterhouses, may have a higher risk of infection.
“CDC asked that jurisdictions make PPE available to workers on dairy farms, poultry farms, and in slaughterhouses. Specifically, the CDC asked state health departments to work with their state agriculture department counterparts and partners in communities, such as farmworker organizations, that can help coordinate and facilitate PPE distributions,” said a notice from the CDC.
Image by ME Image, Shutterstock
The extra precautions come despite only two reported cases in people that occurred in April: One dairy workers who was exposed to cattle in Texas, and another in Colorado who was involved in culling poultry that were believed to have been infected with H5N1.
The Texas case “reported eye redness (consistent with conjunctivitis), as their only symptom”. Meanwhile, the Colorado case reported “fatigue for a few days as their only symptom and has since recovered,” according to the CDC.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf further addressed growing bird flu concerns at a congressional hearing Wednesday. He told senators on a panel that despite a low probability of the strain of avian influenza that is affecting dairy cattle jumping to humans, preparation needed to be taking place.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf
Califf told senators that the virus (like all viruses) continues to mutate but that the “real worry is that it will jump to the human lungs where, when that has happened in other parts of the world for brief outbreaks, the mortality rate has been 25 percent.”
The FDA is currently working on medical countermeasures.
“So we got to have testing. Gotta have antivirals, and we need to have a vaccine ready to go. So we’ve been busy, getting prepared for if the virus does mutate in a way that jumps into humans on a larger level,” Califf said.
Currently, there are 36 dairy herds across nine states affected by H5N1: Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas.
Califf stated that the FDA holds confidence in the scalability of vaccine production if required, and assures that the current mRNA platforms are adaptable to address emerging strains.
“We’re in an enviable position compared to any time in the history of the world,” Califf said. “Viruses are relatively simple, so coming up with a matching vaccine is entirely possible in a short period of time.”
Two scientists who were instrumental in creating a backup vault of the world’s crop seeds so as to protect global food security have been named the 2024 World Food Prize Laureates.
The World Food Prize Laureate Selection Committee chose Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin OBE, founding director and executive board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and Dr. Cary Fowler, the U.S. special envoy for global food security, for their longstanding contributions to seed conservation and crop biodiversity.
The two men played critical roles in establishing the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which today holds 1.25 million seed samples of more than 6,000 plant species in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle. The repository, often called the “Doomsday Vault,” opened in 2008 and stands as the last line of defense against threats to global food security, including pandemics and climate catastrophes.
Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin presenting at CGIAR Philippines in 2002 about the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (Image courtesy of the World Food Prize)
The declaration occurred during a ceremony held at the U.S. Department of State, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Paul Schickler, chair of the World Food Prize Foundation Board, and Mashal Husain, chief operating officer, delivered speeches. Ambassador Terry Branstad, president of the Foundation, unveiled the Laureates’ names.
“The World Food Prize is bestowed to individuals for recognition of their achievements in the fight against hunger and food insecurity — one of the most pressing issues of our time,” said Secretary Blinken. “This year’s awardees, Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin and the State Department’s very own Dr. Cary Fowler, have made extraordinary contributions towards this cause. They have done critical work to advance global crop biodiversity and conserve over 6,000 varieties of crops and culturally important plants, which has had a direct impact in addressing hunger around the world. This is the 20th year the Department of State has played a role in this announcement, and we are honored to be able to support the World Food Prize Foundation’s recognition of Dr. Fowler’s and Dr. Hawtin’s work.”
The vault was the brainchild of Fowler, who wrote to Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask them to consider establishing such a facility during his time at CGIAR, the world’s largest publicly funded agricultural research organization. He was later invited to chair a committee to assess the feasibility of such a project and served as the first chair of the Vault’s International Advisory Council.
“Dr. Fowler’s many contributions to food security are truly global and entrepreneurial in scale, scope, and design — changing peoples’ lives. One of his many legacies, the global seed vault at Svalbard in Norway, will benefit generations to come, and his name will linger on,” said Anne Beathe Kristiansen Tvinnereim, Minister of International Development and Minister of Nordic Cooperation, Norway.
Dr. Cary Fowler discussing USAID’s newest initiative, AgDiv, with members of the Galang’ombe Village in Malawi (Image courtesy of the World Food Prize)
“Dr. Hawtin has helped shape the global work of the Crop Trust in many ways, and today, as a member of its Executive Board, he is at the forefront of shaping the future of this international organization and its role in the transformation of our agri-food systems,” said Dr. Stefan Schmitz, executive director or the Global Crop Diversity Trust. “The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is not only the icon, but also the backbone of a growing global network of genebanks. Drs. Hawtin and Fowler have been instrumental in ensuring that all these genebanks, the treasure troves of plant genetic resources, have an ultimate backup in the Seed Vault on Svalbard, and have also paved the way for the diversity of crops in these genebanks to be utilized by researchers, plant breeders and farmers.”
Genebanks, including the Svalbard Vault, are crucial resources for crop scientists, who breed and develop improved varieties of the world’s most important food crops. Material held in genebanks contains beneficial traits with the potential to improve crops’ climate resilience, disease resistance, nutritional value, and tolerance to increased salinity, which is increasingly valuable in the face of climate change.
“While creating a global seed vault might seem logical now, people told me at the time that the idea was crazy,” said Fowler, who began his career in 1978 as program director at the National Sharecroppers Fund in North Carolina. “We’ve since managed to collect and preserve the diversity of all of the major crops, including, for example, 150,000 types of wheat now in storage. But we need more collections, particularly of indigenous crops from regions such as Africa, because the diversity of these hardy crops is the raw material for plant breeding improvements. I’m hoping the World Food Prize will inspire investments in this kind of transformational R&D which is going to be necessary for food and nutrition security for 10 billion people by 2050.”
Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin being shown fra fra potatoes while visiting Ghana villages in 2001 (Image courtesy of the World Food Prize)
Hawtin spent much of his early career and risked his life collecting, preserving, and protecting species of legumes such as chickpeas and fava beans from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey. These collections helped to establish the genebank managed by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). When civil war broke out in 1975, he was responsible for moving collections of plant genetic material six times across a mined road and under weapons fire from Lebanon to Syria.
Hawtin, former director general of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), now part of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, said: “The genetic diversity of crops and their relatives is as important to biodiversity as it is to food security, and much of it is as endangered as pandas and rhinos. In receiving this honor, I would like to make a call to arms for urgent and sustained funding for the more than 1,700 genebanks around the world that are working tirelessly to make sure the material that farmers and plant breeders need is conserved and remains available. The work of crop genebanks underpins our ability to feed the world today and will do so long into the future.”
Dr. Cary Fowler managing the Svalbard Global Seed Vault by ensuring each box contains its respective seed samples (Image courtesy of the World Food Prize)
The laureates’ efforts to protect food security through seed conservation have already been called upon. The first-ever withdrawal from the Svalbard vault was in 2015 in the wake of the Syrian civil war, which resulted in the loss of ICARDA’s genebank. The withdrawals were used to repopulate collections held in Morocco and Lebanon, and included seeds of legumes that had first been collected by Hawtin and his team decades before.
“Early in their careers, Drs. Hawtin and Fowler realized the immense value and heritage of our crop genetic resources and dedicated their professional life to its safeguarding to secure the future of food and agriculture for the next hundred years and more,” said Gebisa Ejeta, chairwoman of the World Food Prize Laureate Selection Committee. “In choosing these two visionaries, the Selection Committee recognized the importance of this long-term thinking and planning for facing climate change and other existential threats, and for the example it sets and the wisdom it imparts in all of us on how we may collectively mobilize the equitable use of the rest of our global endowments to ensure food security for all.”
