Weekend Economists Rise Again August 10-12, 2012

[Demeter]

16. GMO-Fed Hamsters Become Infertile, Have Stunted Growth By Lisa Garber

http://www.nationofchange.org/gmo-fed-hamsters-become-infertile-have-stunted-growth-1344353117

Yet another study has concluded that feeding animals GMOs results in higher rates of infant mortality and causes fertility problems. Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov and other researchers fed Campbell hamsters (which have fast reproduction rates) Monsanto GM soy for two years. It should be noted that hamsters do not evolutionarily eat soy—just as cows fed Monsanto corn are actually ruminants and would not naturally eat corn. “Originally, everything went smoothly,” Surov told broadcasting service The Voice of Russia. Surov and the researchers fed the same diet to three generations of the hamsters, and that’s when they noticed things going awry.

GMO Causes Fertility Problems, Slow Growth, Hair Growth in Mouths

“We noticed quite a serious effect when we selected new pairs from their cubs and continued to feed them as before. These pairs’ growth rate was slower and reached their sexual maturity slowly.” By the third generation, the hamsters were infertile.

Many animals on the GM diet even displayed rare, strange pathologies like hair growing in recessed pouches inside their mouths. “Some of these pouches contained single hairs,” said Surov in Doklady Biological Sciences, “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 mucous.” Surov and other authors concluded that because rates of hairy mouths occurred more frequently in third-generation GM-fed animals, the condition may have resulted of the GM feed. Surov says contaminants and herbicide residue (like Roundup) could be to blame as well.

Other Victims of GMOs

Other than fertility problems, the GMO phenomenon has been noticed elsewhere—even in our own United States. Farmers using GM feed have reported infertile pigs and cows. Other incidents involving GMOs include:

Austrian researchers reporting 4th generation “Frankencorn”-fed mice totally infertile.
Thousands of dead sheep, buffalo, and goats in India after grazing on GM cottonseed.
Offspring of mother rats fed GM soy dead within three weeks and recorded smaller sizes.
Cooked GM soy with up to 7 times the amount of a soy allergen.
Organ lesions, altered liver and pancreas cells, and changed enzyme levels.
Excessive cell growth in the stomach lining of GM-potato-fed rats, potentially leading to cancer.
GMO corn contributing to human obesity and organ disruption.

Overall, GM sounds like a sweet deal only for Monsanto (and our own FDA and USDA, repeatedly found in bed with them). It remains a bad deal for us, the consumers.