Taranaki base for GM tests mooted

A centre for genetic experiments on dairy cows could be set up in Taranaki.

The AgResearch facility could be up and running within two years and would house stock whose genes had been modified to alter milk properties.

Some of those properties would then be isolated for treating human diseases.

AgResearch's science and technology general manager Dr Jimmy Suttie, of Dunedin, said the project was still in the early stages of development.

Sites in Southland and Canterbury are also being considered.

"We have not decided yet. It could include a number of places and Taranaki could be one of them," Dr Suttie said.

"We still have a number of processes to go through before we have approval to make a new facility."

Those included public and iwi consultation and approval from Environmental Risk Management Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Crown-owned AgResearch already has one facility in Ruakura, near Hamilton, where genetic research on cows takes place.

AgResearch recently put the application forward to ERMA asking for more facilities for containment, permission to genetically modify animals and a larger range of animals to test on.

The move has not pleased GE Free (NZ) whose president Claire Bleakley said the GM animals were sick and suffering.

"Using our animals in this way is excessively cruel," Ms Bleakley said. "What will happen if there is a disaster or an animal escapes, it could be disastrous. They have a very gung-ho approach to this."

She said the genetic modification AgResearch intends to do was dangerous and it had not done enough research to perform such experiments.

"The biotech bubble is going to burst, it's the pollution of our land. I shudder to even call them scientists because the project is still in its infancy and no research has been done on the effects it may have," Ms Bleakley said.

Dr Suttie said Ms Bleakley's comments were overstated and misinformed.

He said the risk of outside contamination was low and there was constant monitoring of the Ruakura site.

"As a scientist, I know the risk isn't zero but the opportunity is so small that we reject the idea that it could happen," he said.

The facility in Ruakura was secured by two sets of high fences, security systems and video surveillance.

The proposed facility would have the same stringent measures in place to prevent outside contamination, Dr Suttie said.

"For interest's sake, if there was some outside contamination it would not be dangerous.

"The consequences of any transfer are not bad."

- © Fairfax NZ News