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KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Recent
revolutionary breakthroughs in
genetic engineering technology
hold promise for the development
of “new-generation” vaccines that
may control a variety of tough
diseases in poultry and animals.
But major, significant
developments to agriculture, using
these new techniques, could be
years away.
This assessment comes from
J.R. Welser, vice president and
director, agricultural research, for
The Upjohn Company. Welser
made his comments in a recent
speech to the Mississippi Poultry
Association.
Welser said that new
technological discoveries now
make it potentially possible to
“design” specific proteins in the
laboratory for development into
vaccines.
Called “sub-unit’ vaccines,
Welser said they hold promise for
potential control of many tough
diseases, such as Marek’s in
poultry, foot and mouth in cattle,
pseudorabies in swine, and
possibly even Herpes in humans.
In developing sub-unit vaccines,
Welser said researchers rearrange
selective pieces of the problem
virus in the laboratory.
“By taking only a piece of the
virus, and skillfully rearranging
its molecules, genetic engineers
can develop a vaccine that fools
the animal’s body into thinking
that the entire live virus has been
injected into its system,” Welser
explained.
“This will cause the animal to
produce antibodies to the virus,’’
he added. “Yet, since the vaccine
does not contain actual real
viruses, the animal will not be
given the disease or become a
carrier as a result of the vac
cination.”
He said this type of genetic
engineering technology could also
lead to other remarkable new
developments in agriculture, in
cluding growth hormones,
specially designed bacteria to
assist ruminants in the digestive
breakdown of cellular feedstuffs,
improved diagnostic technology,
and monoclonal plant breeding
systems, among others.
At the Asgrow Seed Company,
for example...an Upjohn sub
sidiary...Welser said research was
already using somatic cell
hybridization, pollen culture,
meristem culture and other tissue
culture techniques in the
development of disease resistance
in certain agronomic and
vegetable crops.
And Upjohn ag researchers have
joined forces with the company’s
human medicine researchers to
begin research studies in a wide
variety of genetic engineering
areas, he said.
While Welser agreed that this
new technology holds great
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promise for revolutionary changes
in both animal and human science,
he cautions that most of these
discoveries will be a long time in
coming.
“Many current ston6s about this
technology make it seem as if the
revolution in high technology is
already upon us, and that we’ll
soon solve all the world’s
agricultural and food problems,”
he stated.
“Basically, this just isn’t true,”
he added. “We have just barely
scratched the surface in these new
high technology research areas.
And the payoff and benefits are
years, even decades, down the
road.
“Scientific discoveries in
agriculture that are truly of the
breakthrough type, take many
years to fully develop,” he added.
He pointed out that area of
genetic research that involve more
than one genetic characteristic are
the most difficult of all to develop.
“For example,” Welser said,
“one of the most popularly
discussed items in genetic
engineering has been speculation
that we can develop a com plant
that will fix its own nitrogen.
“Also, there’s been speculation
that soybean yields can be doubled
or tripled with genetic engineering
techniques.”
He pointed out that: “In theory,
all of these things are potentially
possible. But, such things as rate of
gain, crop yields, crossing of
different types of plant species,
and so on, are all multi-genetic
challenges.
•‘This kind of genetic
engineering is at least 10 years on
the horizon, and possibly as many
as 50 years.”
However, Welser said that he
believes agriculture is currently
entering its “most exciting era
imaginable,” and that the next 50
years will see “phenomenal”
change and new development.
But, he cautioned that while
these new breakthroughs will solve
some of agriculture’s problems,
technology will, in some cases,
create new sets of problems that
will, in turn, need to be solved.
He explained that recent new
technological developments have
allowed U.S. crop and livestock
productivity to skyrocket.
But he said this dramatic in
crease in productivity has per
mitted us to ignore serious
problems in agriculture, including
depletion of water supplies and
dramatically increasing soil
erosion problems.
“New technology is extremely
valuable, even critical, to the
poultry industry and agriculture,”
he concluded. But, it must always
be put into its proper perspective.
“New technology is not a crutch
which we can always rely on to
solve our every problem.”
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