A PROMINENT expert in livestock genetics has expressed a concern that Australia, along with many Western nations, faces the risk of falling behind China in terms of advancing food production through gene editing.

Dr Alison Van Eenennaam, who leads a team in animal biotechnology and genomics program at the University of California said that China is becoming the dominant player in the use of gene editing, something that may become increasingly important as the world faces increasing food security concerns.

“Over 50 per cent of the applications that I found in the peer reviewed literature in a recent survey were Chinese applications and they were applications being done in all the major food species,” she said.

Cattle and sheep received significant investment, as well as pigs, chickens and aquaculture.

“I think that there is a potential to fall behind if this is not being pursued here,” Dr Van Eenennaam said.

“There are some pretty low-hanging fruit in terms of useful traits that would benefit Australian agriculture and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to not utilise this technology when it really is very analogous to conventional breeding.”

Dr Van Eenennaam said the Australian sheep industry was an outstanding example of the power of genetic improvements, having seen the national flock drop by half since 1963 but mutton production has remained constant and lamb production increased from 368 kilo tonnes (klt) to 535 kt in 2022.

“It’s almost a miraculous story in terms of producing more with less and that’s very much driven by genetics,” she said.

The researcher collaborated with US genome-editing company Recombinetics to splice the ‘hornless’ element of Angus genes into Holstein dairy cows, preventing the need for dehorning.

The discovery was a ground-breaking example of the potential of the science but amid backlash from the anti-genetically modified organism (GMO) community, the US Food and Drug Administration ruled that introducing intended genomic alterations into the DNA makeup of livestock was akin to creating veterinary drugs and needed much more stringent regulation.

New gene editing platforms such as CRISPR allow for gene editing to take place by only removing genes from a DNA strand, whereas older genetic engineering technology involved using viruses or introducing engineered proteins that may have resulted in unintended allergens.

As a result, gene deletions introduced by gene editing are treated no differently to naturally occurring genetic variants by regulators in several countries including Australia.

Genome editing has already been used to prevent livestock disease, including making pigs resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory virus, while the CSIRO is working on a genetic edit that would allow for the in-ovo sexing of eggs and diversion of unwanted male eggs to prevent their hatch.

Dr Van Eenennaam said regulatory uncertainty is preventing further work that could effectively speed up the process of selective breeding and bring significant gains to the livestock industry.

Australia is more conservative than other big livestock jurisdictions like Argentina and Brazil, where edited genes that are ‘repaired’ using a non-transgenic nucleic acid template are considered non-GMO, but here, such a technique would render the animal subject to GMO regulations.

Furthermore, Europe’s ongoing resistance to GMO effectively cuts off that market to anyone using the technology as all genome edited animals and plants are considered full GMOs.

“The elephant in the room here is the historical hangover of fear associated with ‘GMO’, which doesn’t even have a definition in the scientific world,” Dr Van Eenennaam said.

“And it’s just become a boogeyman that’s associated with fear.

“If it’s not treated differently in Australia, but it’s considered to be a GMO in Europe, then what does that do for your trade markets? That does create a trade issue for Australia when you don’t have regulatory harmony between Australia and Europe.

“There are costs associated with not allowing technology to come to market and there are some pretty big threats as it relates to some of the viruses coming down the pipe that I would argue, as are better addressed with genetically resistant animals than with treating the animals that get sick with that disease.”

The biggest gains from a sustainability standpoint may not be in the west, however, but the developing world.

A report released by the World Resources Institute last week found that crop calorie demand is projected to grow by 56 per cent between 2010 and 2050, and meat and dairy demand to grow by nearly 70 per cent.

“Humanity needs to produce enough food, fibre and feed to meet the needs of nearly 10 billion people by 2050 on the same (and ideally less) working land area that now provides for roughly 8 billion,” the report stated.

It called for improved livestock breeding to encourage hereditary traits that increase the conversion of fodder and feed to meat and milk, alongside improved grazing practices.