8 The Trusted Source for Canada’s Pork Producers Better Pork | April 2024 the boars resistant to the virus, but could also solve the other problems they pose by slowing down the speed at which they reproduce. With support from Swine Innovation Porc, Lu was able to secure a Mitacs grant to fund a gene-drive feasibility study using computer modelling to demonstrate the effectiveness of gene editing solutions. The project confirmed that a gene-drive strategy could be successful and brought forward various safety considerations that will be needed should such an approach move forward. These include making sure edited gene variants can only spread by mating, building in an “off-switch” to turn off the spread of edited genes if needed, and implementing tracing or identification strategies for pigs with edited genes. Lu is now working on the next step, which is research to create the molecular design of an edited gene to insert into cells and evaluate how it behaves inside cell cultures. Ultimately, this will lead to development of gene-edited pigs in a research setting to further evaluate the success of the technology. It’s going well, he says, but what is really needed now is funding to keep the work moving forward in a more substantial way – and so far, those efforts have been without success. Funding roadblocks In 2022, Health Canada announced it no longer requires additional risk assessments on gene-edited crops, but Canada does not yet have a regulatory framework for gene-edited animals. In the United States, for example, the Food and Drug Administration has approved meat from gene-edited pigs from Washington State University for human consumption, but in Canada, the uncertainty around a regulatory framework is a major contributing factor to a reluctance to support research in this field. There’s also the challenge of public perception. The ongoing pushback against GM (genetic modification) technology is another contributing factor, even though the two approaches are not the same. GM technology involves inserting genes from another organism, whereas gene editing focuses on editing an organism’s existing genes, and there is hope that public opinion will evolve as more people come to understand the gene editing technology. “Gene editing and gene-drive is quite new and different but offers a potential solution to a tremendous problem in a practical and economic way,” Lu says. “The concern is around regulatory approval and when we would be able to actually use this type of solution.” Regulatory approval processes take time, however, but so does research and development. Given the urgency of the threat posed by wild boars, Lu and other industry experts like Bilyea believe strongly in the need for ongoing funding from government and industry to help the industry be ready to act once regulatory approvals are in place. “Invasive wild pigs not only present an existential threat to the hog and pork industry, but indeed to human health as they can become a reservoir for zoonotic diseases,” says Bilyea. “Given the similarity in human and pig genomes, inaction on removal of this risk is needlessly endangering human health as well.” BP This article is provided by Livestock Research Innovation Corporation as part of LRIC’s ongoing efforts to report on research, innovation, and issues affecting the Canadian livestock industry. LRIC is funded in part by the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP), a five-year, federal-provincial-territorial initiative. LILIAN SCHAER Lilian Schaer is an agricultural journalist with over two decades of experience in the Canadian agri-food industry. ASF & WILD BOARS
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