It has become clear that the Independent Administrative Entity the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS), located in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, on two occasions, 9 and 14 September 2010, left open a ventilator at the top of a greenhouse in which a GM crop cultivation experiment was being performed. When an experiment is taking place, it must be carried out in a closed condition isolated from the surrounding environment in order to prevent the spread of pollen. This incident is a contravention of the Cartagena laws and MEXT issued a �gsevere warning�h to the Institute on 1 October 2010. (For previous contraventions of the Cartagena laws, see BJ July 2010.)

It has become clear that two GM mice may have escaped from the research laboratory of the pharmaceutical maker Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. (Machida City, Tokyo) on two separate occasions, 25 June and 30 July 2010. The mice have not been located. Since this is a contravention of the Cartagena laws, MEXT has issued the company with a �gsevere warning.�h (For previous contraventions of the Cartagena laws, see BJ July 2010.)

The first GM animal to become human food
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in order to determine whether the GM salmon, which grows twice as quickly as normal salmon and looks like becoming the first GM animal to become human food, can be approved as food, carried out a solicitation of opinions and a three-day public hearing from 19 September 2010. The GM salmon, known as AquAdvantage, has been developed by AquaBounty Technologies at a cost of US$50 million. The company is already set up to mass manufacture the salmon at its factory on Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the salmon will be on the market very soon if it is approved.

If the GM salmon is approved, it looks as though the �ehealthy pig�f and other GM livestock already developed will be queuing up to appear on our dinner tables. In Canada, the pig developed to be environmentally friendly, the �eEnviropig,�f is already waiting in line after the GM salmon.

Problems of the GM salmon
The faster-growing GM salmon has up to 25 times the body weight of wild salmon. According to the 8 March 2007 edition of the New Scientist, recent research shows that the GM salmon may alter its temperament to become ferocious and thus if it escapes into the environment may drive off other males in the fight for females. However, in the process of artificial enlargement through GM technology, this salmon�fs reproductive capability has become weakened and it is unable to create descendants. It has thus been pointed out that the GM salmon may prevent wild salmon from reproducing and that there is a danger of extinction. Further, since the GM salmon is a carnivore, there is also the possibility that it will eat large numbers of other fish.

Researchers at Purdue University, Indiana, have investigated the risks to the environment of releasing the GM salmon into the environment using a computer model and a statistical analysis. According to the research, releasing the reproductively-challenged male GM salmon into the environment resulted in the time required for the extinction of wild salmon varieties to be shorter than previously thought; the research estimates that extinction will occur after approximately 20 generations.

Last year, Gothenburg University in Sweden published a �gGM Salmon Ecological Impact Assessment�h in which concern was expressed for the health of the ecology and humans in the case that GM salmon were released into the environment. In addition, it has also been pointed out that the concentration of growth hormone in the salmon is high, and the impacts of this are also a cause for concern.

If this GM salmon is approved in the US, there is a high possibility that the fish products will enter Japan. It is impossible to tell whether the raw material used in a food was GM salmon or not after processing.