PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 22, No. 14, Feb. 20, 2003

UI officials work to resolve pig dispute
The UI is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to resolve an issue that arose as a result of a Feb. 5 FDA report about what the agency said was a potential violation of regulations regarding the sale of the offspring of transgenic pigs.

The 386 pigs the UI sent to slaughter between April 2001 and late January 2003 were not transgenic animals, according to the UI scientists involved in the research. In fact, two sets of four tests were performed on the pigs to make certain they were not transgenic, the researchers said. The testing procedures had been shared with FDA officials in 2001, and the research project had been approved by two university oversight committees – the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and the Biological Safety Committee.

The researchers began a series of studies in 1999 that involve gene insertion into pigs, the goals being to increase milk production in sows, improve digestive health in pigs and produce healthier animals without drugs. The researchers have worked closely with the FDA since the studies began.

One of the issues to be resolved is the term investigational animals, a term the FDA has used regarding the 386 pigs in question. The UI researchers did not consider the pigs investigational because tests showed them to be non-transgenic.
The FDA said it believed that based on its current information, the pork from the animals does not pose a public health risk.

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