AquaBounty's Response to the Press Release Titled 'Coalition Demands FDA Deny Approval of First Genetically Engineered Food Animal'

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by Ronald L. Stotish, Ph.D., Executive Director, President and CEO of AquaBounty Technologies:

This press release is inaccurate, deliberately misleading, and intended to create fear and misunderstanding. AquAdvantage salmon are, quite literally, the most studied fish in the world.  In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has spent the last fifteen years creating a robust regulatory process to ensure these fish and other transgenic animal applications are appropriately evaluated and regulated.

AquAdvantage salmon are a possible solution to many of the environmental concerns associated with salmon production. AquaBounty has taken unprecedented steps to assure that the fish cannot interact with wild populations.  Not only are they all sterile females, as a condition of approval they will be raised in land-based contained aquaculture systems – making escape into the wild an impossibility.  Furthermore, the author of the Trojan gene hypothesis raised by the coalition has specifically said it does not apply to salmon, nor to AquAdvantage salmon in letters both to AquaBounty and to members of the coalition.

AquAdvantage salmon represent an opportunity to avoid many of the concerns associated with conventional salmon aquaculture, and also present a lower carbon footprint and environmental impact because of their efficient growth. They can be grown economically closer to population centers, reducing the need for long distance transportation, a huge benefit to the environment. AquAdvantage Salmon represent an opportunity to provide a safe and sustainable supply of high quality seafood to a growing world population. In an era of shrinking wild fish stocks, AquAdvantage salmon should be applauded by environmentalists and responsible people concerned with food security.

About AquaBounty Technologies: Our mission is to play a significant part in "The Blue Revolution" – bringing together biological sciences and molecular technology to enable an aquaculture industry capable of large-scale, efficient, and environmentally sustainable production of high quality seafood. Increased growth rates, enhanced resistance to disease, better food-conversion rates, manageable breeding cycles, and more efficient use of aquatic production systems are all important components of the sustainable aquaculture industry of the future.

SOURCE AquaBounty Technologies