Bovine somatotropin (abbreviated
bST and
BST) is a protein hormone produced in the
pituitary glandThe pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland about the size of a pea and weighing 0.5 g . It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, and rests in a small, bony cavity covered by a dural fold...
s of
cattleCattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
. It is also called
bovine growth hormone, or
BGH. Monsanto Company, a U.S.-based corporation, first synthesized the hormone in large quantities using recombinant DNA technology and marketed it as "POSILAC" beginning in 1994. The resulting product is called
recombinant bovine somatotropin (
rBST),
recombinant bovine growth hormone (
rBGH), or
artificial growth hormone.
Monsanto sold its POSILAC Brand Dairy Product and Related Business to Elanco Animal Health, a division of
Eli Lilly and CompanyEli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
in August 2008. Posilac has not yet been approved for use in Canada nor Europe.
By 2009, in the United States consumer desire for "no artificial growth hormones" caused a domino-effect causing most milk products to become rBST-free.
Posilac
In 1937, the administration of BST was shown to increase the milk yield in
lactatingLactation describes the secretion of milk from the mammary glands, the process of providing that milk to the young, and the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young. The process occurs in all female mammals, and in humans it is commonly referred to as breastfeeding or nursing...
cows by preventing mammary cell death in dairy cattle. Until the 1980s, there was very limited use of the compound in
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
as the sole source of the hormone was from bovine
cadaverA cadaver is a dead human body.Cadaver may also refer to:* Cadaver tomb, tomb featuring an effigy in the form of a decomposing body* Cadaver , a video game* Cadaver , a Norwegian death metal band...
s. During this time, the knowledge of the structure and function of the hormone increased. Monsanto Company developed a
recombinantRecombinant DNA is a form of DNA that does not exist naturally, which is created by combining DNA sequences that would not normally occur together...
version of BST, brand-named Posilac, in 1994, which is produced through a
genetically-engineeredGenetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct manipulation of an organism's genes. Genetic engineering is different from traditional breeding, where the organism's genes are manipulated indirectly...
E. coliEscherichia coli , is a Gram negative bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E...
. A gene that codes for the sequence of amino acids that make up BST is inserted into the DNA of the E. coli bacterium. The bacteria are then broken up and separated from the rBST, which, then, is purified to produce the injectable hormone. Growth hormones associated with injections given to dairy cows to increase milk production are known under an assortment of terms, but these terms, in general, refer to the Monsanto product. The Monsanto fact sheet on its
proprietaryThe word proprietary indicates that a party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over an item of property.Terms relating to Proprietary include:*Proprietary chapel*Proprietary church*Proprietary colleges*Proprietary colony...
product states that, when injected into dairy cattle, the product can increase milk production by an average of more than 10% over the span of 300 days.
Use of Posilac
Posilac prevents mammary cell death in dairy cattle. As such, it does not increase milk production on a day-to-day basis, but rather prevents milk production from decreasing over the long term, thus resulting in higher overall production during a lactation. Because a cow's milk production increases and decreases during her lactation based upon a known curve, application of Posilac can be carefully planned to maximize results.
An average dairy cow begins her lactation with a moderate daily level of milk production. This daily output increases until, at about 70 days into the lactation, production peaks. From that time until the cow is dry, production slowly decreases. This increase and decrease in production is partially caused by the count of milk-producing cells in the udder. Cell counts begin at a moderate number, increase during the first part of the lactation, then decrease and the lactation proceeds. Once lost, these cells generally do not regrow until the next lactation.
To apply Posilac for maximum effect, farmers are recommended to make the first Posilac application about 50 days into the cow's lactation, just before she peaks. The Posilac then sustains already-present mammary cells, limiting the rate of production decrease after production peaks. After the peak, production declines with or without application of Posilac, but declines more slowly with Posilac than without. This decrease in the rate of production decline permits dairy cows to produce more milk over the span of a lactation - at its best, this will be seen by seven to eight more pounds of milk being produced per day than would be produced without the benefit of Posilac.
Controversy
Use of BST is controversial because of its potential effects on animal and human health and the encroachment on small farmers by large corporations.
Animal health
Two
meta-analysesIn statistics, a meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses. This is normally done by identification of a common measure of effect size, which is modelled using a form of meta-regression...
have been published on rBST's effects on bovine health. Findings indicated an average increase in milk output ranging from 11%-16%, a nearly 25% increase in the risk of clinical
mastitisMastitis is the inflammation of breast tissue.-Terminology:Popular usage of the term mastitis varies by geographic region. Outside the US it is commonly used for puerperal and nonpuerperal cases, in the US the term nonpuerperal mastitis is rarely used and alternative names such as duct ectasia,...
, a 40% reduction in fertility and 55% increased risk of developing clinical signs of
lamenessLameness in horses and other equidae is a term used to refer to any number of conditions where the animal fails to travel in a regular and sound manner on all four feet...
. However, the study did not show if using "natural" growth hormones had the same or worse effects (the study in fact notes that synthetic BST can be made to be identical to natural BST). The same study reported a decrease in body condition score but speculated that it may have been attributable to differences in feeding of treated (underfed) versus untreated (overfed) cows.
A
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
scientific commission was asked to report on the incidence of mastitis and other disorders in dairy cows and on other aspects of the welfare of dairy cows. The commission's statement, subsequently adopted by the European Union, stated that the use of rBST substantially increased health problems with cows, including foot problems, mastitis and injection site reactions, impinged on the welfare of the animals and caused reproductive disorders. The report concluded that, on the basis of the health and welfare of the animals, rBST should not be used.
Health CanadaHealth Canada is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for national public health.The current Minister of Health is Leona Aglukkaq, a Conservative Member of Parliament appointed to the position by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.-Branches, regions and agencies:Health Canada...
prohibited the sale of rBST in 1999; the recommendations of external committees were that, despite not finding a significant health risk to humans, the drug presents a threat to animal health, and, for this reason, cannot be sold in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Human health
According to the
Food and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is a Government agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for regulating and supervising the safety of foods, tobacco products, dietary supplements, Medication drugs, vaccines, Biopharmaceutical, blood transfusion,...
, food products made from
rBSTRBST or rBST may refer to:* Randomized binary search tree, a computer data structure* Rare Breeds Survival Trust, a UK charity* Recombinant bovine somatotropin , a synthetic growth hormone controversially used in dairy farming...
treated cows are safe for human consumption, and no significant difference exists between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows. Furthermore, the FDA found bGH to be biologically inactive when consumed by humans and found no biological distinction between rBST and
BST-Time zones:* Bangladesh Standard Time* British Summer Time, the daylight savings time zone for the British Isles, which was known as British Standard Time between 1968 and 1971* Burma Standard Time, the standard time zone for Burma...
. In 1990, an independent panel convened by the National Institute of Health reaffirmed the FDA opinion that milk and meat from cows supplemented with rBST is safe for human consumption. However, bans were upheld in Canada and Europe based on evidence that rBGH in the milk supply causes cancer in human beings.
Still, various consumer groups have expressed concern over perceived effects from both BST itself, as well as
insulin-like growth factor 1Insulin-like growth factor 1 , which was once called somatomedin C, is a polypeptide protein hormone similar in molecular structure to insulin. It plays an important role in childhood growth and continues to have anabolic effects in adults....
(IGF-1), which is increased by rBST injections. Monsanto has stated that both of these compounds are harmless given the levels found in milk and the effects of
pasteurizationPasteurization is a process which slows microbial growth in food. The process was named after its creator, French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur. The first pasteurization test was completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard on April 20, 1864...
.
But Monsanto's own tests, conducted in 1987, demonstrated that statistically significant growth stimulating effects were induced in organs of adult rats by feeding IGF-1 at low dose levels for only two weeks. "Drinking rBGH milk would thus be expected to significantly increase IGF-1 blood levels and consequently to increase risks of developing breast cancer and promoting its invasiveness." .
Unresolved safety concerns of rBST use continue to revolve around IGF-1 increases. Following many years of research, high levels of IGF-1 have been associated with increased risk of numerous cancers, including prostate, colon, breast, lung, intestinal, and others. The debated question, however, was whether IGF-1 in milk could survive digestion and be absorbed into the bloodstream.
The US Food and Drug Administration maintains that IGF-1 does not survive digestion in humans. Furthermore, the FDA argues that even if IGF-1 does survive digestion, the levels in milk from rBST treated cows (about 1-13 nanograms/milliliter) are so low compared to levels in human blood sera (about 100-200 nanograms/milliliter), that there would be no significant effect on the total IGF-1 levels and thus no adverse effect on human health.
Nevertheless, multiple studies have opposed both parts of this theory. A study in rats found that IGF-1, in the presence of casein (the major protein found in milk), easily survived digestion in the stomach and successfully passed into the small and large intestines. Another rat study built on these findings and plainly showed significant gastrointestinal absorption of recombinant IGF-1, a protein with a polypeptide sequence identical to IGF-1 created using DNA recombination technology, in the presence of casein. Human studies have also gathered statistically significant data that people who consume the most dairy products have higher serum levels of IGF-1. Such results elicit the possibility that milk consumption affects cancer risk by a biological mechanism concerning IGF-1 in the human body.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbgh/0724_monsanto_rbgh.cfm
Lawsuit against Fox television
Fox television affiliate
WTVTWTVT, channel 13, is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsdiary of the News Corporation. WTVT's studios are located in Tampa, and its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida....
/Fox13 in
Tampa, FloridaTampa is a Gulf Coast city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of the state of Florida in the United States. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. The population of Tampa in 2000 was 303,447...
was sued by
Steve WilsonSteve Wilson is Chief Investigative Reporter for WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. During the early 1990s, he was a reporter for the syndicated news program Inside Edition....
and
Jane AkreJane Akre and her husband Steve Wilson are former employees of Fox owned-and-operated station WTVT in Tampa, Florida. In 1997, they were fired from the station after refusing to knowingly include false information in their report concerning the Monsanto Company's production of RBGH, a drug...
, two former employees who were fired in relation to a conflict over reporting information that they uncovered about rBST. The reporters found documents from Monsanto, which showed that they failed to turn over health concern information to the FDA about rBST. The journalists wrote a story about the documents that were uncovered in 1996 about the potential for human health risks of rBST, and the fact that the FDA never received this information. The station began publicizing the upcoming broadcast of the story. Monsanto, the manufacturer of rBST, expressed "concern" about the story to FOX. Monsanto is affiliated with top FOX advertisers, and threatened FOX with "consequences". The station asked the journalists to change the story. However, the journalists refused. FOX then offered to pay the reporters to keep quiet, drawing up a contract to never reveal any information about rBST, not even to their children's school. The journalists refused to sign the contracts. The station fired the journalists, and refused to air their report. This story is featured at length in the documentaries
The CorporationThe Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film written by Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary is critical of the modern-day corporation, considering it as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a...
and
OutfoxedOutfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is a 2004 documentary film by filmmaker Robert Greenwald that criticises the Fox News Channel, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, claiming that the channel is used to promote and advocate right-wing views...
.
After a five-week trial, which ended August 18, 2000, Akre was awarded $425,000 in damages; Wilson was awarded nothing. The jury found that Fox's actions were in retaliation for Akre's refusal to report "a false, distorted, or slanted story,". The jury did not find, however, enough evidence to determine if the station bowed to pressure from Monsanto to alter the reporting.
Fox appealed this ruling and prevailed on February 14, 2003, when an appeals court issued a ruling reversing the jury. The court's basis was that FCC policies on news agencies reporting the truth are not legally binding; and, as such, Fox had no legal requirement to report the truth in a news story.
In 2004, Fox filed a $1.7 million counter-suit against Akre and Wilson for trial fees and costs.
IGF-1
MonsantoThe Monsanto Company is a United States-based multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as "Roundup". Monsanto is also the leading producer of genetically engineered seed, holding 90% market share for various GE...
's studies show use of rBST in cows increases bovine
insulin-like growth factor 1Insulin-like growth factor 1 , which was once called somatomedin C, is a polypeptide protein hormone similar in molecular structure to insulin. It plays an important role in childhood growth and continues to have anabolic effects in adults....
in milk, a structure that is identical in cows and humans. Monsanto states that there is no danger of consuming milk or meat from cows treated by BST, and that the only difference between milk from supplemented cattle and unsupplemented cattle is the amount of IGF-1, though even these elevated levels are similar to levels found in milk from untreated cows. Further, the amount of IGF-1 consumed in milk is negligible compared to the amount produced in the body. However, various studies suggest that IGF-1 is resistant to pasteurization, and furthermore, that increased levels of IGF-1 may, in fact, be linked to increased risk of breast, colon, and prostate cancer. However finally, there is no study showing that IGF-1 in humans actually does increase after consumption of any kind of milk.
Benefits of Artificial BST
Recombinant BST (rBST) made from bacteria has some advantages over "natural" BST, namely:
- "natural" BST must be taken from dead animals, increasing the risk of BSE and other lethal diseases
- rBST can be mass-produced and reduces cost
Regulation
Use of the recombinant supplement has been controversial. While it is used in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(though not without reaction), it is 100% banned in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
. In Canada, bulk milk products from the United States that have been produced with rbST are still allowed to be sold and used in food manufacture (cheese etc.)
Regulation inside the United States
In 1993, the product was approved for use in the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by the
FDAThe Food and Drug Administration is a Government agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for regulating and supervising the safety of foods, tobacco products, dietary supplements, Medication drugs, vaccines, Biopharmaceutical, blood transfusion,...
, and its use began in 1994. The product is now sold in all 50 states.
Enforcement
The FDA does not require special labels for products produced from cows given rBST but has charged several dairies with "misbranding" their milk as having no hormones, because all milk contains hormones and cannot be produced in such a way that it would not contain any hormones. Monsanto sued an independent dairy over their use of a label which pledged to not use artificial growth hormones. The dairy stated that their disagreement was not over the scientific evidence for the safety of rBST (Monsanto's complaint about the label), but "We're in the business of marketing milk, not Monsanto's drugs." The suit was settled when the dairy agreed to add a qualifying statement to their label: "FDA states: No significant difference in milk from cows treated with artificial growth hormones." The FDA recommends this additional labeling but does not require it. The settlement itself caused much controversy, with anti-rBST advocates claiming that Oakhurst had capitulated in response to intimidation by a larger corporation and others claiming that Oakhurst's milk labels were in and of themselves using misleading scare tactics that deserved legal and legislative response.
Demand for milk without using synthetic hormones has increased substantially in the US since Monsanto introduced their rBST product; organic milk is now an important sector of the organic food market.
Labeling in Pennsylvania
In 2007, the U.S. state of
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
adopted a regulation that would have banned the practice of labeling milk as derived from cows not treated with rBST. This prohibition was to go into effect January 1, 2008, but was delayed to February 1, 2008 in order to give interested parties more time to submit comments to the state's Department of Agriculture. Milk producers are now able to distinguish between milk produced by cows treated with rBST and cows receiving "natural" BST treatment or no treatment.
Response from commercial groups
Several milk purchasers and resellers have elected not to purchase milk produced with rBST. The nation's largest dairy processor,
Dean FoodsThe Dean Foods Company is an American food and beverage company. In 1925, founder Samuel E. Dean bought the Pecatonica Marketing Company, an evaporated milk processing facility located in northwestern Illinois and named it the Dean Evaporated Milk Company in 1927. That same year Dean began to...
, no longer sells milk from rBST-treated cows, and the top 3 grocery retailers in the nation,
Wal-MartWal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and...
,
KrogerThe Kroger Co. is an American retail supermarket chain and parent company, founded by Bernard Henry Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$76 billion in sales during fiscal year 2008. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume ...
, and
CostcoCostco Wholesale Corporation , simply known as Costco, is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the world based on sales volume. It is the fifth largest general retailer in the United States. - Location :...
have pledged not to sell such milk in their stores. Specific examples include:
- Winder Farms
Winder Farms, headquartered in West Valley City, Utah, is an online grocer providing dairy and other grocery products to the doorsteps of tens of thousands of homes in Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada.-History:The business was started in 1880 by John R. Winder...
, a home delivery dairy and grocer in Utah and Nevada, sells rBST-free milk.
- Safeway
Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's third largest supermarket chain, with, as of December 29, 2007, 1743 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. The...
in the northwestern United States stopped buying from dairy farmers that use rBST in January 2007. The two Safeway plants produce milk for all of Oregon, Southwest Washington, and parts of northern California. Safeway's plant in San Leandro, CA had already been rBST-free for two years.
- Chipotle Mexican Grill
Chipotle Mexican Grill , also known as Chipotle , is a chain of restaurants specializing in burritos and tacos. Founded by Steve Ells in 1993 and based in Denver, Colorado, the restaurant is known for its large burritos, assembly line production, and commitment to natural ingredients...
has also announced it will serve rBST-free sour cream Sour cream is a dairy product rich in fats obtained by fermenting a regular cream by certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, introduced either deliberately or naturally, sours and thickens the cream...
at its restaurants.
- Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American retail supermarket chain and parent company, founded by Bernard Henry Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$76 billion in sales during fiscal year 2008. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume ...
has banned rBST-derived milk from all its stores (including its subsidiaries such as RalphsRalphs Grocery Company is a major supermarket chain in the Southern California area. It is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River...
) as of February 2008,
- Publix
Publix Super Markets, Inc. is an American supermarket chain based in Lakeland, Florida.Founded in 1930 by George W. Jenkins, it is an employee-owned, privately held corporation and was ranked No. 10 on Forbes' 2008 list of America's Largest Private Companies and is the largest in Florida...
announced it has been rBST-free since May, 2007.
- Braum's
Braum's Ice Cream and Dairy Stores is a family-owned and operated chain of fast-food restaurants and grocery stores based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It currently has locations in Oklahoma and in parts of Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri...
has also issued a press release stating its milk is rBST-free.
- Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 16,120 stores in 49 countries, including around 11,000 in the United States, followed by nearly 1,000 in Canada and...
Company has as of January 2008 made all dairy in beverages rBST free.
- Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and...
and Sam's ClubSam's Club is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs. Founded in 1983, it is owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and is named after Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. As of 2008, the Sam's Club chain operates in 48 of the 50 U.S. States, and serves more than 47 million U.S....
stores featured hormone-free "Great Value" brand milk, but did not label it as such in 2008.
Monsanto has responded to this trend by lobbying state governments to ban the practice of distinguishing between milk from farms pledged not to use rBST and those that do. According to the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09feed.html, a pro-rBST advocacy group called Afact has been most active in these lobbying efforts. AFACT is a producer led organization made up of both farmers and allied industries; the group's acronym stands for American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology. Though rBST is one of AFACT's main concerns, their mission is to educate, equip and empower all participants in the food chain to understand the benefits of technology and encourage consumers to demand access to high-quality, affordable food with a minimal impact on the environment. They are funded by producer and allied industry member dues and donations including corporate sponsorships from Monsanto, Kansas Dairy Association, Alta Genetics, Arm and Hammer Animal Nutrition, Fort Dodge Animal Health, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health, Merial, Pfizer Animal Health, Vincent, Urban Walker & Assoc and Vita Plus.
Thus far, a large-scale negative response to legislative and regulatory efforts has kept state regulators from pushing through strictures that would ban hormone-free milk labels, though several politicians have tried, including
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
's (see the Pennsylvania section above) agriculture secretary Dick Wolff, who tried to ban rBST-free milk on the grounds that it would alleviate consumer confusion. Proposed labeling changes have been floated by lobbyists in
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
,
OhioOhio is a Midwestern state of the United States. The thirty-fourth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the seventh-most populous with nearly 11.5 million residents...
,
IndianaIndiana is a U.S. state, the 19
th admitted to the Union. It is located in the Great Lakes region, and with approximately 6.3 million residents, is ranked 16
th in population and 17
th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38
th in land area, and is the...
,
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
,
UtahUtah is a western state of the United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80 percent of Utah's 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making...
,
MissouriMissouri is a state in the Midwest region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 18th most populous state with a 2008 estimated population of 5,911,605. It comprises 114 counties and one independent city....
and
VermontThe State of Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd by land area, , and 45th by total area. It has a population of 621,270, making it the second least-populated state...
. So far, however, this effort has been unsuccessful.
Regulation outside the United States
In
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
,
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
, and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, rBST is not approved for use.
The
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
declared the use of rBST as safe in 1990, but, in 1993, a moratorium was placed on its sale by all member nations. It was turned into a permanent ban starting from January 1, 2000.
Canada's health board,
Health CanadaHealth Canada is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for national public health.The current Minister of Health is Leona Aglukkaq, a Conservative Member of Parliament appointed to the position by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.-Branches, regions and agencies:Health Canada...
, refused to approve rBST for use on Canadian dairies, citing concerns over animal health. The study they had commissioned, however, found "no biologically plausible reason for concern about human safety if rbST were to be approved for sale in Canada. The only exception to this statement is the occurrence of an antibody reaction (possible hypersensitivity) in a subchronic (90-day) study of rbST oral toxicity in rats that resulted in one test animal's developing an antibody response at low dose (0.1 mg/kg/day) after 14 weeks."
The Codex Alimentarius Commission, United Nations body that sets international food standards, has to date refused to approve rBST as safe. The Codex Alimentarius does not have authority to ban or approve the hormone but its decisions are regarded as a standard and approval by the Codex would have allowed exporting countries to challenge countries with a ban on rBGH before the WTO.
See also
- Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct manipulation of an organism's genes. Genetic engineering is different from traditional breeding, where the organism's genes are manipulated indirectly...
- Growth hormone treatment
Growth hormone is a peptide hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that stimulates growth and cell reproduction. In the past growth hormone was extracted from human pituitary glands. GH is now produced by recombinant DNA technology and is prescribed for a variety of reasons...
- Recombinant DNA
Recombinant DNA is a form of DNA that does not exist naturally, which is created by combining DNA sequences that would not normally occur together...
- List of recombinant proteins
- Industrial farming
External links