EC Review of 10 publications done on the effect of bt MON810 maize on livestock health (pg 2-12).
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The focus of Work Package 1 was on the availability of knowledge and data, as well an overview of existing activities, which could, for example, fit into the database to be established within Work Package 6. Its tasks were both to collect data on existing and previous monitoring activities, as well as to identify items that are not or not entirely covered by these activities and therefore could be further developed in order to facilitate possible future monitoring activities on the relationship between feed consumption and animal health.

Results of a literature search into published data on the health of animals consuming GM crops did not give rise to concerns about the effect of GM feed on livestock health as most short-term, long-term and multigenerational studies conclude that animal health is not adversely affected by feeding GM feed.

Results of an inventory of existing research projects/activities and monitoring systems showed that animal health is indeed monitored in the EU, but the relation between (GM) feed and animal health cannot be estimated from existing databases because hardly any (GM) feed data are recorded within these monitoring systems. Also lacking to a great extent is knowledge on the relationship between animal health and (GM) feed consumption. Another literature review focused on the possibilities to detect GM ingredients in feed and the fate of these ingredients’ DNA during digestion. The outcomes showed that while DNA is well digested in the gastrointestinal tract, in some cases transgenic DNA could still be demonstrated in the gastrointestinal tract. This topic is further elaborated in Work Package 2.

It was concluded that much knowledge that would facilitate the monitoring of potential effects of GM feed on animal health is still missing. For example, no validated farm animal models exist for testing the effect of GM feed on the health of such animals, neither are there any established, adequate ex vivo or in vitro systems that could act as a substitute for the highly variable and costly in-vivo animal experimentations. As Work Package 1 has been finalized, the report providing further details of the outcomes of the abovementioned activities is the final result, which will serve as basis and input for the follow-up Work Packages, in particular the development of an epidemiological model (Work Package 5) and the design and implementation of a database and data collection (Work Package 6).