I have recently been seeing Face Book comments on female hamsters loosing their fertility on the 3rd. generation. Is this a proven fact or just Organic producers way of promoting their products?

Expert response from Andrew Bartholomaeus

B.Pharm, PhD, Cert Ag (III)

Tuesday, 01/12/2015 15:03

There are many "studies" from groups opposed to GMOs that purport to show all sorts of implausible effects of GMOs. The best response is to look at the data from the commercial production of livestock in the USA.  Every year farmers in the USA produce 9 billion animals for human consumption, the vast majority, more than 95 percent, of which are fed GMO corn and soy for their entire lives including during breeding. After more than 20 years of GMO feed, many more than three generations have been fed GMOs with no apparent adverse effects across many species of animals including pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens etc.  For a farmer, fertility and growth rate for a given amount of feed is the basis for their income and something they will watch very carefully, yet almost all farm animals are bred and raised on it.  If you would like more information have a look at the paper by Van Eenennam: Prevalence and impacts of genetically engineered feedstuffs on livestock populations. 2014 American Society of Animal Science. J. Anim. Sci. 2014.92:4255–4278.