Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
enriched in omega-3 could provide a credible
alternative to the dwindling world i sh
stocks that are currently used to meet the
demand of aquaculture for i sh oil. Some
anti-nutritional compound of plant oil may
hinder its use as a i sh feed, but recent
experiments with farmed i sh have shown
that it is possible to replace up to 70% of i sh
meal with soybean meal, with some
adjustments in the ration without af ecting
the overall i sh growth (NOAA-USDA,
2011). Omega-3-enhanced crops are a much
more renewable resource than forage i sh.
With the current price of i sh oil, and
provided that the nutritional limitations to
the incorporation of plant oil in i sh and
animal diets are overcome, there is little
doubt this feed application will be proi table.
However, some technical challenges
remain for the development and commercial-
ization of a major oil crop with an enhanced
content of omega-3 PUFAs. h e acyl-lipid
metabolism is extremely complex; in model
plants it requires more than 120 enzymatic
reactions, and at least 600 genes are
involved; moreover, the PUFA biosynthesis
pathways vary from one oil crop to another
and a better genomic characterization of
these is still needed. In order to develop a
variety that would become a commercially
viable alternative to i sh oils, breeders are
now focusing on optimizing the level of
PUFAs in oilseeds to bring it closer to that
found in i sh oils, while avoiding the
presence of undesirable intermediate com-
pounds (Ruiz-Lopez
et al
., 2012). Once this
objective is completed, this will pave the way
to a possible sustainable alternative to
marine resource depletion, while at the same
time providing an improvement to human
nutritional health.
that can be brought to the quality of
feedstuf s. However, as this chapter has
shown, very few events are, as yet, available
for farmers, and those that may reach the
market within the next 5 years (i.e. before
2018) are very few (Table 12.5). In spite of
the legitimate expectations of the actors in
the chain, there is still a long way to go
before GM crops with animal nutrition-
designed traits dominate the market.
Some events seem to be quite advanced
in the research stage, such as low-lignin
lucerne, high-Trp rice, omega-3 soybean or
low-phytase barley, while others need
further research. However, the biotechno-
logical issues will not be the only constraints
to the commercial success of GM varieties
developed for animal nutrition. h ere will
be regulatory issues regarding the fact that
these are events with a modii ed com-
position, for which the substantial equiva-
lence rule might not apply, and on top of
this there will be economic and market
issues. Indeed, for those feed quality traits
and contrary to the agronomic traits of the
i rst generation of GM crops, the adopter of
the innovative technology - the farmer,
grower of the GM plant - is not necessarily
the one who benei ts directly from the
innovation (unless he or she is also a
livestock farmer, but this is a specii c case).
h is means that he or she needs to be
convinced to adopt the modii ed crops, by
the way of an economic incentive, in this
case a premium that would be paid in
addition to the price of the alternative
conventional crops. h is also implies that a
segregation system should be in place to
ensure that the identity of the crop with a
specii c trait is preserved in the supply
chain until it reaches the i nal user.
h is requires dedicated infrastructures,
especially if various identity preservation
schemes have to be operated simultaneously.
h e costs incurred by the segregation of
these crops, added to the technology fee to
be paid to the innovator, are likely to
represent a limit to the adoption of these
new events by farmers and a question of
their economic proi tability. h e market will
only retain those that clearly bring
h e pipeline for GM crops enhanced for
animal nutrition is a rather active one, with
almost 100 events under research in many
countries of the world. h is rel ects both the
importance of feed markets for GM crops
and the potential important improvements
