Monsanto's GM Corn MON863 Showed Kidney, Liver Toxicity in Animal Feeding Study

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Monsanto's GM Corn MON863 Showed Kidney, Liver Toxicity in Animal

Feeding Study

 

STRONG SUSPICIONS OF TOXICITY IN A GMO MAIZE

By By Stephane Foucart

Le Monde, March 14 2007

 

Straight to the Source

http://www.organicc onsumers. org/articles/ article_4790. cfm

 

Web Note: This english translation was obtained from

http://www.laleva. org/eng/2007/ 03/monsanto_ genetically_ mo...

The study itself can be found at

http://www.springer link.com/ content/02648wu1 32m07804/

 

The corn in the study, MON 863, is Bt variety that was approved for

commercial release by the USDA on March 23, 2002,

(http://www.aphis. usda.gov/ brs/aphisdocs2/ 01_13701p_ com.pdf) and is

marketed by Monsanto under the trademark " YieldGaurd Rootworm " .

 

Allowed to go on the market in France and Europe, MON 863, a

transgenic corn invented by Monsanto, has been at the center of a

controversy over its innocuousness for over two years (April 23rd,

2004, Le Monde).

 

These debates could resume after the March 13th publication

in " Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology " of a

study suggesting this genetically modified organism (GMO) is toxic

to the liver and kidneys.

 

According to this work, consumption of MON 863 corn disturbs

numerous biological parameters in rats to a greater or lesser

extent: weight of the kidneys, weight of the liver, the level of

reticulocytes (new red blood cells), the level of triglycerides, etc.

 

Urinary chemistry is also changed, with reductions in excreted

sodium and phosphorus going as high as 35 percent. The effects vary

with the sex of the animals.

" Female rats exhibit an increase in blood fat and sugar levels, and

an increase in body weight - all associated with greater hepatic

sensitivity, " says Mr. Seralini, principal author of this study and,

moreover, president of the Research Committee for Independent

Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen). " Among

males, the impact is opposite, with a drop in body and kidney

weights. "

 

The authors of this work used data drawn from an experiment

sponsored by Monsanto, which bore on the study of 400 rats for 90

days. The statistical treatment applied to these data by the experts

of the agrochemical firm was published in August 2005, by " Food and

Chemical Toxicology. "

That work brought to light significant variations in biological

parameters between animals fed MON 863 and those fed with its

isogene - the same plant variety without the genetic modification.

 

Monsanto researchers, for their part, had concluded that those

disparities were within the frame of the natural variability of the

measured parameters. The effects produced by the GMO were therefore

not considered pathological. As for the " natural variability, " it

had been established by measuring the same series of data on rats

fed with other varieties of non-GMO corn, with different nutritional

values from MON 863 and its isogene.

 

The raw experimental data - over a thousand pages - were kept

confidential by the agrochemical firm until Greenpeace obtained an

order for its publication in spring 2005 from the Appeals Court of

Munster (Germany).

 

Criigen was thus able to examine the data in detail and to apply a

new statistical treatment to them. According to Mr. Seralini, that,

notably, consisted of extracting from the raw data the most

significant effects specifically imputable to GMO absorption.

 

" Of the 58 parameters measured by Monsanto, " the researcher

details, " all those that were altered concern kidney or liver

functioning. " He continued, " furthermore, Monsanto had deemed that,

because the males and the females responded differently, there was

no reason for worry. " He added, " Yet, the liver, for example, is an

organ that reacts differently as a function of sex. " In the same

way, the fact that the measured biological response was not always

in exact correlation with the dose of GMO received was interpreted

by the company's experts as proof that the transgenic corn being

tested was not the cause. Mr. Seralini contests that

principle: " When the disturbances are hormonal, for example, the

impact may not be proportional to the dose. "

 

Toxicologist Gerard Pascal, a member, like Mr. Seralini, of the

Committee on Bio-molecular Engineering, deems certain that Criigen's

conclusions are erroneous. " I reject the analysis of the animals'

weight curves, conducted without taking their feeding into account, "

says Mr. Pascal. " But I agree that the biological responses may vary

between males and females and with the principle that the effects of

a GMO corn must be compared with its isogene only and not take into

account effects produced by other corn varieties. "

 

According to Mr. Pascal, the lack of direct correlation between the

GMO doses received and the impacts observed on the hepatic

parameters disqualifies the conclusions about liver toxicity.

Significant differences with respect to " kidney weight " and " urinary

sodium, phosphorus, and potassium " suggest a renal

impact. " However, " Mr. Pascal recalls, " at my request, the CGB

pressed for investigations of the kidneys and had not found any

definitive evidence of toxicity " (December 15th, 2004, Le

Monde). " The variations in the levels of reticulocytes and

eosinophiles (white blood cells) remain, " adds M. Pascal. " I don't

know how to interpret that, but those are parameters that move

around a lot in experiments. " As far as Mr. Pascal is concerned, the

information developed by Criigen is not of a nature to call into

question the favorable opinions delivered with respect to MON

863. " All that is nothing but a personal interpretation, " adds the

toxicologist.

 

Criigen's work has been financed by Carrefour and Greenpeace, but,

as Mr. Seralini explains, " Unfortunately, today there is no public

budget for conducting this type of research. " A situation all the

more harmful, according to Mr. Seralini, in that, " the whole

toxicological study ought to be redone, controlling for hormonal

dosages " and, above all, the tests should be continued well beyond

90 days and on species other than the rat to reach a definitive

conclusion.

 

 

 

What if a “dirty bomb†exploded over a large segment of U.S.population that

simultaneously exposed citizens to Hepatitis B,Hepatitis A, tetanus,

pertussis, diphtheria, three strains of polio viruses, three strains of

influenza,

measles, mumps, and rubella viruses, two types of meningitis, four strains of

herpes viruses, the chickenpox virus, 7 strains of Streptococcus bacteria,

and four strainsof rotavirus.

 

 

• We would declare a national emergency.

• It would be an “extreme act of BIOTERRORISM

• The public outcry would be immense and our government would react

accordingly.

 

 

And yet, those are the very organisms we inject into our babies and our

small children in multiple doses, with immature, underdeveloped immunesystems,

many at the same time with vaccines.

But instead of bioterrorism, we call it “protection.†Reflect on that

irony.

 

- Dr Sheri Tenpenny, MD

 

 

 

 

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