AR-News: (US WA) GloFish makes waves in gene pool, raising questions about ethics, safety

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

By Griff Witte
The Washington Post

BILL O'LEARY / THE WASHINGTON POST
GloFish are created by inserting a coral gene into a zebra danio. The fish 
are the nation's first officially sanctioned, genetically modified pet. The FDA 
in December declined to regulate GloFish.



WASHINGTON — They're about an inch long. They feast on flakes. To anyone 
uninitiated in the hierarchy of fish, they are likely to be mistaken for lowly 
guppies. 
But because they also emit a distinct red glow, the zebra danios sold under 
the name GloFish carry a lofty claim to fame: They are the nation's first 
officially sanctioned genetically modified pet. 
Scientists say they won't be the last. In their native South Asia, zebra 
danios usually are black-and-white striped, not red. Nor do the fish ordinarily 
shine intensely under black light, as the GloFish does. It takes the insertion 
of a gene from sea coral to make the zebra fish a GloFish. 




full story:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001878847_biopet14.html 
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