Please Don’t Eat the GloFish: Suit Seeks a Halt to Pet Sales
Two public interest groups sued the federal government Wednesday, seeking to block sales of the nation’s first biotech household pet.
The suit filed in federal court in Washington says the trademarked GloFish should be federally regulated. Sales are legal everywhere except California, which banned the fluorescent zebra fish last month.
The suit asks a federal judge to order the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health and Human Services to regulate the genetically modified fish, and to halt sales by Yorktown Technologies LLP, based in Austin, Texas, until the government acts. Sales of the Florida-grown fish began this month.
The commonly black and silver fish glows red under black or ultraviolet light because of a gene transplanted from a sea anemone.
The Center for Technology Assessment and the Center for Food Safety allege in their suit that the benign fluorescing gene was inserted using genes derived from viruses, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The suit alleges those hidden genes could pose human and animal health hazards if the biotech fish were released into natural waterways and consumed by other fish that eventually are eaten by humans.
The FDA said last month it would not regulate the fish because it is not intended for human consumption.
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