Genetically modified feeds in poultry diet: safety, performance, and product quality

Concerns have been expressed regarding the safety of using biotechnology derived feeds in diets of livestock animals and in regard to human consumption of products from species fed transgenic crops. As a consequence, a large number of poultry nutrition studies have been conducted to evaluate the wholesomeness of transgenic crops by examining performances of animals during growth or egg laying. Studies also evaluated whether foreign DNA and proteins could be detected in meat, egg, and tissue samples from broiler chickens and laying hens fed diets containing transgenic feeds. In all studies, the conclusions were in agreement that the transgenic crops provided comparable performance, carcass and egg yields, and meat and egg composition, when compared with conventional grains. Moreover, it was demonstrated that transgenic proteins and DNA present in livestock feeds are not detectable in food products derived from these animals, using the most sensitive detection methods available, confirming that they are rapidly degraded by normal digestive processes. The lack of significant differences were a result of the similarity in nutrient composition of the genetically modified feeds and lack of differences in intake and digestibility, while there were no evidences that the differences reported for performance response variables and carcass measurements between treatment groups were attributable to the presence of the transgenic gene and protein in the biotechnology derived plants. Results demonstrated that genetically modified feeds are substantially equivalent and they result as safe as existing conventional feeds.