Two-generation Study Shows Bt Rice has No Effect on Wistar Rats

Bt rice TT51 is developed by introduction of synthetic Bt gene (CryAb or CryAc) into rice MingHui63. Er Hui Wang from Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and colleagues conducted study to investigate about the long-term effects of biotech crops in human or animal health. Rice-based diets, containing 60% ordinary grocery rice, MingHui63 rice or TT51 rice by weight, were fed to two generations of male and female Wistar rats. The researchers observed both clinical performance variables and histopathological responses and compared between groups.

Results showed that there were no significant differences between groups on body weights, food consumption, reproductive data, and relative organ/body weights. No tissue and cellular abnormalities were observed in important organs such as brain, heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach, small intestine, thymus, ovaries, uterus, testes and epididymides. Based on these findings, Bt rice poses no harm on reproduction performance of rats.

Read the abstract at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691513008077.