GMF Safety Assessment: Challenges to Thailand

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GMF Safety Assessment Challenges to Thailand

• Ruud VALYASEVI
• National Center for Genetic Engineering and
  Biotechnology (BIOTEC)
• National Science and Technology Development Agency

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Agriculture in Thailand

• Contribute 14 of countrys total export
• about 50 of the population engaged in
  agriculture
• leads the world in the production of rice,
  frozen shrimp, cassava, canned tuna and canned
  pineapple

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Thailands National Biosafety Committee

• AD1990 - Thailands Subcommittee for Biosafety in
  Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
  established
• AD1992 - Launched Biosafety Guidelines (in Thai)
• AD1993 - National Biosafety Committee established
• AD1994 - Establishment of Institutional Biosafety
  Committee (IBC)
• AB1995 - Launched Biosafety Guidelines (in
  English)

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Organization Structure of Biosafety Committee
Thailands Biodiversity Center (National Focal
Point)
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Developments of GMOs in Thailand

• Meeting of the International Economic Policy
  Committee
• Basically all seeds from genetically modified
  plants are banned from growing and using
  commercially in agriculture until proven as safe
• Currently all seeds from genetically modified
  plants can only be allowed for use in experiments
  only

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Latest Developments on GMOs in Thailand

• Department of Agriculture has the authority and
  responsibility to ensure that no genetically
  modified plants are grown
• illegally
• Certifications of GMOs or non GMOs may be
  requested from the Departments of 1) Fisheries
  2) Livestock and Development 3) Medical Science
  or 4) Food and Drug Administration
• Thailands FDA has the authority to ensure that
  foods derived from genetically modification are
  safe for consumption

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GMO Certification Guidelines for Foods destined
for Export
Food Company
Regulation Bodies
Certification Authority
Analytical Results
BIOTEC
D. MSc
GMO Technical Analyses
Importer or Market
Dept. Agr.
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GMF in Thailand
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Viral Resistance Papaya
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Genetically Modified Papaya
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Transgenic Papaya of the Department of
Agriculture
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Transgenic VS Non transgenic Papaya
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Challenges for GMF in Thailand

• Technical Challenges
• interpretation of data
• lack of adequate information for data
  interpretation
• Social Challenges
• NGO and public acceptance
• Policy Challenges
• government policy to support RD in this area

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Policy Challenges
• Under pressure by the public and Assembly of the
  Poor, the government put a memorandum banning
  large scale field trials of GMOs
• This has more or less prevented safety
  assessment of GM crops for environment and human
  food
• This has also put research on GM crops to a
  halt

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Social Challenges
• NGO tried to paint negative image to GMO by
  disseminating incorrect information to the public
  via mass media
• NGO takes this opportunity during the height of
  the sensation to destroy all GM papaya in the
  field trials
• this act of terrorism halts further work on GM
  papaya in Thailand

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Safety Assessment Thailands experience

• Technical Challenges
• Papaya as a case study
• papaya are eaten raw as a main staple diet in
  many parts of Thailand
• Assessments are conducted on unripened and
  ripened papaya
• higher levels of certain nutrients in
  non-transgenic than transgenic ripened and
  unripened papaya particularly in Beta-carotene
  (114), vitamin C (200), pottasium (20) and
  licopene (872)
• published data on nutrient composition of
  unripened papaya are not available and hence
  difficulties in establishing substantial
  equivalence

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Technical Challenges
• Information on dietary exposure of certain local
  crops to the local people is still lacking ie.,
  how much recommended daily allowance of vitamin A
  of Thai people comes from vitamin A?
• Data on Dietary Exposure Dietary Exposure is
  particularly important for the safety assessment
  of nutritional enhanced GMF
• are very important to determine the severity of
  risk or probability of risk

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Technical Challenges
• Standard or validated methods for detecting
  endogenous toxic substances are not available for
  many of local crops such as BITC (Benzyl
  Isothiocyanate) in papaya
• Information on the amounts of endogenous toxic
  substances in many local plants are also
  unavailable

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Technical Challenges
• Experimental Design random block design
• Not sufficient samples from virus sensitive line
  versus transgenic line
• In safety evaluation, use 30-40 papaya from
  transgenic and control lines sprayed with virus.
  Hence get plenty from transgenic line but not
  from virus sensitive control line

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Technical Challenges
• RAST (radioallergosorbent reactivity) is the
  skin test of sera from individuals with history
  of food allergenicity to determine the IgE
  antibody response to the tested plant extract.
  Pools of sera showed most reactivity will used in
  immunoblot assay of allergens from the plant
  extract to see the number of protein from the
  plant extract will react to the IgE antibody

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Lack of assessors particularly in the areas of
  allergenicity
• Lack of pools of sera from sensitive population
  for use in RAST of allergenicity test

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Policy Challenges
• Lack of national policy restricted the research
  and development and commercialization of GMO in
  Thailand
• this has also put restrain on the researchers
  and convey negative perception of GMO to the
  public

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GMF Safety Assessment Thailands Experience

• Social Challenges
• Lack of understanding of GMOs makes public
  vulnerable to misleading information on GMOs
• Public education is crucial in gaining
  acceptance of GMOs
• Public acceptance is most important in
  successful commercialization of GMOs
• Media plays an important role in influencing
  public perception of GMOs

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Thank you for your attention