Spectrum - Volume 20 Issue 30 April 30, 1998 - Inzana to conduct assessment

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Inzana to conduct assessment

By Jeffrey S. Douglas

Spectrum Volume 20 Issue 30 - April 30, 1998

The USDA's Biotechnology Risk Assessment Laboratory has awarded a $182,000 grant to fund a study in the college designed to evaluate risks associated with the release of recombinant organisms into the environment.
Working in the college's Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease, Thomas Inzana, professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, will conduct the work with a recombinant strain of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae he developed as a potential porcine vaccine.
"This is the first live, recombinant bacterial pathogen that causes respiratory disease in any animal or human that is being evaluated to determine the risks associated with the release of recombinant organisms," Inzana said. "We will be evaluating the potential for this strain to be transmitted to contact pigs in small and large herds as well as transfer of its foreign DNA to other microorganisms."
While recombinant organisms are being developed in laboratories around the world, Inzana said, some questions exist regarding the safety of releasing these organisms into the environment. This study is designed precisely to answer that question, he said.