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GM Soy linked to sterility & infant mortality

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    GM Soy linked to sterility & infant mortality

    Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality in Hamsters

    (link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/genetically-modified-soy_b_544575.html)

    Huffington Post, April 20, 2010 12:32 PM: “This study was just routine,” said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.

    After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

    And if this isn’t shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths—a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.

    The study, jointly conducted by Surov’s Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Association for Gene Security, is expected to be published in three months (July 2010)—so the technical details will have to wait. But Surov sketched out the basic set up for me in an email.

    He used Campbell hamsters, with a fast reproduction rate, divided into 4 groups. All were fed a normal diet, but one was without any soy, another had non-GM soy, a third used GM soy, and a fourth contained higher amounts of GM soy. They used 5 pairs of hamsters per group, each of which produced 7-8 litters, totally 140 animals.

    He selected new pairs from each group, which generated another 39 litters. There were 52 pups born to the control group and 78 to the non-GM soy group. In the GM soy group, however, only 40 pups were born. And of these, 25% died. This was a fivefold higher death rate than the 5% seen among the controls. Of the hamsters that ate high GM soy content, only a single female hamster gave birth. She had 16 pups; about 20% died.

    Surov said, “The low numbers in F2 [third generation] showed that many animals were sterile.”

    The published paper will also include measurements of organ size for the third generation animals, including testes, spleen, uterus, etc. And if the team can raise sufficient funds, they will also analyze hormone levels in collected blood samples.

    Hair Growing in the Mouth

    Earlier this year, Surov co-authored a paper in Doklady Biological Sciences showing that in rare instances, hair grows inside recessed pouches in the mouths of hamsters.

    “Some of these pouches contained single hairs; others, thick bundles of colorless or pigmented hairs reaching as high as the chewing surface of the teeth. Sometimes, the tooth row was surrounded with a regular brush of hair bundles on both sides. The hairs grew vertically and had sharp ends, often covered with lumps of a mucous.”

    (The photos of these hair bundles are truly disgusting. Trust me, or look for yourself.)

    At the conclusion of the study, the authors surmise that such an astounding defect may be due to the diet of hamsters raised in the laboratory. They write, “This pathology may be exacerbated by elements of the food that are absent in natural food, such as genetically modified (GM) ingredients (GM soybean or maize meal) or contaminants (pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals, etc.).” Indeed, the number of hairy mouthed hamsters was much higher among the third generation of GM soy fed animals than anywhere Surov had seen before.

    Preliminary, but Ominous

    Surov warns against jumping to early conclusions. He said, “It is quite possible that the GMO does not cause these effects by itself.” Surov wants to make the analysis of the feed components a priority, to discover just what is causing the effect and how.

    In addition to the GMOs, it could be contaminants, he said, or higher herbicide residues, such as Roundup. There is in fact much higher levels of Roundup on these beans; they’re called “Roundup Ready.” Bacterial genes are forced into their DNA so that the plants can tolerate Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. Therefore, GM soy always carries the double threat of higher herbicide content, couple with any side effects of genetic engineering.

    Years of Reproductive Disorders from GMO-Feed

    Surov’s hamsters are just the latest animals to suffer from reproductive disorders after consuming GMOs. In 2005, Irina Ermakova, also with the Russian National Academy of Sciences, reported that more than half the babies from mother rats fed GM soy died within three weeks. This was also five times higher than the 10% death rate of the non-GMO soy group. The babies in the GM group were also smaller (see photo) and could not reproduce.

    In a telling coincidence, after Ermakova’s feeding trials, her laboratory started feeding all the rats in the facility a commercial rat chow using GM soy. Within two months, the infant mortality facility-wide reached 55%.

    When Ermakova fed male rats GM soy, their testicles changed from the normal pink to dark blue! Italian scientists similarly found changes in mice testes (PDF), including damaged young sperm cells. Furthermore, the DNA of embryos from parent mice fed GM soy functioned differently.

    An Austrian government study published in November 2008 showed that the more GM corn was fed to mice, the fewer the babies they had (PDF), and the smaller the babies were.

    Central Iowa Farmer Jerry Rosman also had trouble with pigs and cows becoming sterile. Some of his pigs even had false pregnancies or gave birth to bags of water. After months of investigations and testing, he finally traced the problem to GM corn feed. Every time a newspaper, magazine, or TV show reported Jerry’s problems, he would receive calls from more farmers complaining of livestock sterility on their farm, linked to GM corn.

    Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine accidentally discovered that rats raised on corncob bedding “neither breed nor exhibit reproductive behavior.” Tests on the corn material revealed two compounds that stopped the sexual cycle in females “at concentrations approximately two-hundredfold lower than classical phytoestrogens.” One compound also curtailed male sexual behavior and both substances contributed to the growth of breast and prostate cancer cell cultures. Researchers found that the amount of the substances varied with GM corn varieties. The crushed corncob used at Baylor was likely shipped from central Iowa, near the farm of Jerry Rosman and others complaining of sterile livestock.

    In Haryana, India, a team of investigating veterinarians report that buffalo consuming GM cottonseed suffer from infertility, as well as frequent abortions, premature deliveries, and prolapsed uteruses. Many adult and young buffalo have also died mysteriously.

    Denial, Attack and Canceled Follow-up

    Scientists who discover adverse findings from GMOs are regularly attacked, ridiculed, denied funding, and even fired. When Ermakova reported the high infant mortality among GM soy fed offspring, for example, she appealed to the scientific community to repeat and verify her preliminary results. She also sought additional funds to analyze preserved organs. Instead, she was attacked and vilified. Samples were stolen from her lab, papers were burnt on her desk, and she said that her boss, under pressure from his boss, told her to stop doing any more GMO research. No one has yet repeated Ermakova’s simple, inexpensive studies.

    In an attempt to offer her sympathy, one of her colleagues suggested that maybe the GM soy will solve the over population problem!

    Surov reports that so far, he has not been under any pressure.

    Opting Out of the Massive GMO Feeding Experiment

    Without detailed tests, no one can pinpoint exactly what is causing the reproductive travesties in Russian hamsters and rats, Italian and Austrian mice, and livestock in India and America. And we can only speculate about the relationship between the introduction of genetically modified foods in 1996, and the corresponding upsurge in low birth weight babies, infertility, and other problems among the US population. But many scientists, physicians, and concerned citizens don’t think that the public should remain the lab animals for the biotech industry’s massive uncontrolled experiment.

    Alexey Surov says, “We have no right to use GMOs until we understand the possible adverse effects, not only to ourselves but to future generations as well. We definitely need fully detailed studies to clarify this. Any type of contamination has to be tested before we consume it, and GMO is just one of them.”

    #2
    Thanks for posting this stuff Kathy. There is a large body of research that indicates plenty of problems with the way GM crops are modified and what they are modified with. The general consensus is though that it is our duty to ignore the risks and forge ahead because we didn't experience any problems ourselves that we could tell from the GM crop. Kind of like my granddad smoked until he was 105 therefor smoking must not be bad. History might tell a different story but of course we might not be around to hear it.

    Comment


      #3
      Evolution is never ending. The only problem with humans is that we seem to want to push it along rather than simply go with the natural flow. The natural flow will be one that we can all accept and adapt to, the one that unconcious human beings would have us follow is destructive and unGodly. Can't think of anything more unGodly than a hairy mouthed infertile human..LOL

      Thanks again Kathy and viva la all natural'.

      Comment


        #4
        Hair growing inside the mouth? Wow, that's weird.

        But it leads me to believe that if Monsanto ever drops GM production, Gillette will pick it up . . .

        Comment


          #5
          huffingtonpost.com eh???

          The day that I start believing even 10% of what that site puts out is the day I start believing in Santa Claus.

          They seem to specialize in alarming articles that reveal previously unknown facts about any subject that you want to know about.

          They are great with conspiracy theories and attract the doubters of the world.

          Comment


            #6
            NO SANTA? But Kathy said there was!

            Comment


              #7
              Readers should know that this report has not been published or peer reviewed, and does not contain complete information on the study method, implementation and findings. Without this data there is insufficient scientific basis to objectively interpret the study, and establish any causal relationship.

              Biotech crops are among the most extensively tested foods in history, and undergo more scrutiny than conventionally -and organically-produced foods. They have been cultivated for more than a decade, and eaten by billions of people worldwide without a single documented health problem.

              Comment


                #8
                A decade. A whole freakin decade.

                Yup. A decade of "scrutiny" does wonders to instill confidence is GMO's.

                Give your head a shake.

                Comment


                  #9
                  croplife: "Biotech crops are among the most
                  extensively tested foods in history, and undergo
                  more scrutiny than conventionally -and
                  organically-produced foods. They have been
                  cultivated for more than a decade, and eaten by
                  billions of people worldwide without a single
                  documented health problem."

                  What a Joke!

                  The article points out that the study will be
                  published in a peer-reviewed journal hopefully by
                  July 2010. Jeffrey Smith has done more
                  investigation into GM crops than you can imagine,
                  and has published several books.

                  The "business" of publishing in journals can get
                  very dicy, as one researcher from the UK told me,
                  "science is bloodier than politics"! Maybe the
                  prerelease of this article is an attempt to let the
                  proposed publishing journal know that the public
                  will be waiting for this study to appear, aka don't
                  squash it.


                  "The study, jointly conducted by Surov's Institute of
                  Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of
                  Sciences and the National Association for Gene
                  Security, is expected to be published in three
                  months (July 2010)—so the technical details will
                  have to wait. But Surov sketched out the basic set
                  up for me in an email."

                  I'm not so sure what is so problematic about the
                  techniques used to "feed" hamsters these various
                  diets. Where the problem lies, is the GM creators
                  only look at short term health effects.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    With just looking for a couple minutes at pubmed I
                    found this study showing changes to mRNA in mice
                    embryos in the early stages of development. SOYA

                    Eur J Histochem. 2008 Oct-Dec;52(4):263-7.
                    Can a genetically-modified organism-containing
                    diet influence embryo development? A preliminary
                    study on pre-implantation mouse embryos.

                    Cisterna B, Flach F, Vecchio L, Barabino SM,
                    Battistelli S, Martin TE, Malatesta M, Biggiogera M.

                    Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Laboratorio di
                    Biologia Cellulare e Neurobiologia, ed Instituto di
                    Genetica Molecolare del CNR, University of Pavia,
                    Italy.
                    Abstract
                    In eukaryotic cells, pre-mRNAs undergo several
                    transformation steps to generate mature mRNAs.
                    Recent studies have demonstrated that a diet
                    containing a genetically modified (GM) soybean can
                    induce modifications of nuclear constituents
                    involved in RNA processing in some tissues of
                    young, adult and old mice. On this basis, we have
                    investigated the ultrastructural and
                    immunocytochemical features of pre-implantation
                    embryos from mice fed either GM or non- GM
                    soybean in order to verify whether the parental diet
                    can affect the morpho-functional development of
                    the embryonic ribonucleoprotein structural
                    constituents involved in pre-mRNA pathways.
                    Morphological observations revealed that the
                    general aspect of embryo nuclear components is
                    similar in the two experimental groups. However,
                    immunocytochemical and in situ hybridization
                    results suggest a temporary decrease of pre-mRNA
                    transcription and splicing in 2-cell embryos and a
                    resumption in 4-8-cell embryos from mice fed GM
                    soybean; moreover, pre-mRNA maturation seems
                    to be less efficient in both 2-cell and 4-8-cell
                    embryos from GM-fed mice than in controls.
                    Although our results are still preliminary and
                    limited to the pre-implantation phases, the results
                    of this study encourage deepening on the effects of
                    food components and/or contaminants on embryo
                    development.

                    PMID: 19109102

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Paraphrase what you just posted Kathy. Do you understand whats in it?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        So now we are supposed to believe a study done in an obscure lab in ITALY.

                        Come on Kathy, can't you find any BAD stuff from labs in North America?

                        Comment


                          #13
                          some folks won't believe anything negative against
                          GM crops because they grow them. To admit that
                          there could be a serious problem with consuming
                          them, would mean that they might have to change
                          their own practices. This goes for the consumer
                          also. That is why we need labelling so that the
                          consumer can make the choice.

                          Go to a website like wikipedia and read up on
                          messenger RNA
                          (mRNA):http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_R
                          NA#Eukaryotic_pre-mRNA_processing

                          Comment

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