GM pets on sale soon

Tired of boring, normal pets with their dull, unmodified genomes? Yorktown Technologies, a Texas-based company, is betting you are. Over the objections of several environmental groups, the company plans to release the genetically modified GloFish to consumers on Jan. 5. It will be the first GM pet to go on sale in the United States. The GloFish is a zebra fish with a fluorescence gene introduced from a sea coral. Zebra fish are normally pale gray and black, but due to the added gene, the GloFish are vivid red and glow under ultraviolet light. The genetically modified fish was originally developed in Singapore to help detect pollutants in water by changing color. Yorktown Technologies, which licenses the fish in the United States, has stated that GloFish are safe for the environment because, being tropical fish, they cannot survive outside a fish tank in the colder waters of the United States. The GloFish are to sell for approximately $5 each and will be available for purchase in pet stores across the country. A similarly glowing GM fish is already being sold in Asia.

This news brief appeared in the Random Data column of the Boston Globe’s Health/Science section on 12/02/2003.