FDA Finds Unexpected Antibiotic Resistance Genes in ‘Gene-Edited’ Dehorned Cattle

Published on Monday, Aug 12th, 2019 by Independent Science News is a new article: FDA Finds Unexpected Antibiotic Resistance Genes in ‘Gene-Edited’ Dehorned Cattle written by Jonathan Latham, PhD and Allison Wilson, PhD.

Synopsis: New research published by officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has discovered that foreign DNA can become inadvertently introduced into the genomes of gene-edited animals. Gene-editing techniques are widely considered to offer substantial improvements, in terms of precision, over older genetic engineering techniques. But the new FDA research shows that foreign DNA can become inadvertently incorporated, in this case unbeknownst to the developer. The findings are a significant blow to the argument that gene-editing should not be subject to regulation and represent a vindication of the EU approach, which is to regulate gene-edited organisms as GMOs.