Over 50% of newborn rats died within 3 weeks when mothers were fed with GE soya

36% were severely stunted

The research was led by Dr Irina Ermakova at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a leading research institute in Russia.

Flour was used from a GM soya bean developed by Monsanto to be resistant to its pesticide, Roundup. It was added to the food of female rats, starting two weeks before they conceived, continuing through pregnancy, birth and nursing. Others were given non-GM soya and a third group was given no soya at all.

36 per cent of the young of the rats fed the GE soya were severely underweight, compared to 6 per cent of the offspring of the other groups. More alarmingly, 55.6 per cent of those born to mothers on the GE diet perished within three weeks of birth, compared to 9 per cent of the offspring of those fed normal soya, and 6.8 per cent of the young of those given no soya at all.

"The morphology and biochemical structures of rats are very similar to those of humans, and this makes the results very disturbing" said Dr Ermakova. "They point to a risk for mothers and their babies."

Comment by PSRAST

The cause is either harmful effects of the herbicide in the Genetically engineered Soy or harmful effects from the genetically engineered genes (transgenes). Such harmful effects have been predicted on the basis of experimental research, so the effect from GE soy reported here is not a great surprise.

More research is needed to establish the same effect in humans, but the reason laboratory rats are used in safety research is that they are often good indicators of health hazards for humans

We have repeatedly demanded thorough investigation of the risks before GE foods are released for human consumption. But the biotech industry has been ignoring the rapidly increasing numbers of data indicating serious health effects.

With the support of the US government, the biotech industry is now pressing hard for a universal acceptance of GE foods claiming that there is an "absence of evidence of harm". This is seriously dishonest and very unscientific as very little research has been done into the safety of these foods. There is evidence of harm, but such reports have been few, because very little research has been done. The reason is a serious negelect by governmental authorities to support thorough independent examination of the risks of GE foods.

The Biotech lobby maintains that no obvious indications of harmfulness has appeared in spite of widespread use as food. But important potential harmful effects, such as fetal defects, cancer and immune system disturbances act slowly. Therefore people may fall ill months or years after eating the harmful food, so "obvious indications" of harmfulness will not appear even if the food is very harmful.

In addition, there is no labelling of GE foods in the US, where most of the GE foods are used. So if the GE soy is as harmful to humans as to rats, many newborn babies of mothers eating GE soy (which is very common) may have been harmed or even killed without any possibility of discovering the connection.

"The excessive stunting and deaths from GM soya is clear, even though the cause(s) remain unknown without extensive further investigations. One possibility is poisoning from glyphosate herbicides and residues used with RR soya. Glyphosate - and more so in the Roundup formulation - is extremely lethal to many frog species [15] ( Roundup Kills Frogs , SiS 26), and is linked to late spontaneous abortions in humans, and toxic to human placental cells at one-tenth the recommended agricultural dosage [16] ( Glyphosate Toxic & Roundup Worse , SiS 26) and/or other causes general to the genetic modification process [17] (see most recent review, Genetically Modified Food Animals Coming ).

These include toxicities and immunogenic reactions from the transgenes [transgene = genetically modified DNA /PSRAST comment]; unknown toxins and RNA transcripts from unintended genetic and epigenetic changes in the RR soya subsequent to the insertion of foreign DNA, and/or continuing transgenic instability [18, 19] ( Transgenic Lines Proven Unstable , SiS 20; Unstable Transgenic Lines Illegal , SiS 21); and unintended horizontal transfer of transgenic DNA from RR soya into the rat germ cells that give rise to the progeny, resulting in lethal and other harmful mutations [20, 21] ( Sense & Nonsense in Horizontal Gene Transfer , SiS 16, and many other articles on horizontal gene transfer on ISIS website). The effects on the progeny of female rats fed GM soya were not limited to the first generation. It persisted into the next. "