Prevalence of genetically modified soybean in animal feedingstuffs in Poland
Published Online: Jan 29, 2021
Page range: 93 - 99
Received: Jul 15, 2020
Accepted: Feb 02, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2021-0012
Keywords
© 2021 Z. Sieradzki et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Introduction
Globally, genetically modified (GM) crops were grown on 191.7 million hectares in 2018, which were mostly sown with soybean, maize, cotton, oilseed rape, and rice. The most popular traits introduced through genetic modification include herbicide and pest insect resistance. The aim of this study was to identify and quantify genetically modified soybean used in animal feed in Poland.
Material and methods
This research was based on the real-time PCR technique. All methods for GM soybean events were adopted from the EURL GMFF database of methods and previously verified to meet the minimum criteria of acceptance. Over 15 years of research, 665 samples were examined in total.
Results
The most common GM soybean event was MON40-3-2, tested for from the beginning of the investigation. Next, in decreasing order of frequency, were MON89788, MON87701, and A2704-12. In the majority of samples (606; 91%) GM soybeans were identified at a content level above the 0.9% GM content threshold for mandatory labelling. Only 59 soybean samples (9%) were identified as GM negative. GM negative results were mainly identified during the analyses in the last three years of the study, from 2017 to 2019.
Conclusion
Our data clearly indicate that the majority of soybean used in Poland for animal feeding was genetically modified.