Canada close to developing flax GM test

(Resource News International) –– The Flax Council of Canada, in conjunction with the National Research Council through its Plant Biotechnology Institute, is very close to developing a more accurate method of detecting genetically modified organisms in Canada`s flaxseed exports, an official with the council said.

The institute had been working on an event-specific test that searches for the presence of a DNA sequence unique to a certain GMO, said Barry Hall, president of the Flax Council.

“By developing this, laboratories around the world will have a Triffid-specific test,” he said, referring to CDC Triffid, a long-deregistered, never-commercialized GM variety which GMO-shy European customers recently claimed to have found in imported Canadian flax.

Hall said the Flax Council, the Plant Biotechnology Institute and DNA Landmarks have successfully identified two flax genomic sequences which flank the right border ends of the two T-DNA inserts in the CDC Triffid event.

Based on the flanking sequence information, event-specific PCR protocols are now being developed and preliminary work demonstrates that the PCR protocols can be further refined and validated to become a robust event-specific PCR test for CDC Triffid in flaxseed samples.

The organizations anticipate having a pre-validated PCR protocol that will be available to be scrutinized by independent facilities by Oct. 15 as a result, Hall said.

“Once the protocol has been scrutinized and proves it can hold its own, that will be a huge step forward in this battle,” he said.

The Plant Biotechnology Institute, on behalf of the Flax Council of Canada, will contact appropriate labs to enlist their participation in the validation process.

Hall also indicated that the test will also be able to identify any cross-contamination from other GM seed varieties such as canola.

The need to develop this test came in response to the suspension of all Canadian flaxseed imports to Europe after the discovery by European labs of a genetic marker in the commodity in early September. Subsequent discoveries in additional Canadian flaxseed shipments have also occurred.

Europe has a zero tolerance policy for GMOs.

European laboratories claim the GMO material in the Canadian flaxseed is FP967, the variety number for Triffid.

Europe represents about 70 per cent of Canada’s flax exports. On average between 500,000 to 700,000 tonnes of Canadian flaxseed, or roughly two-thirds of Canada’s production, is shipped to European destinations on a crop-year basis, private sources estimated.

Meanwhile, the Flax Council is also continuing its efforts  to identify the source of the GM organisms that were found in the shipments of Canadian flaxseed to Europe, Hall said.

“Numerous flax samples from all regions of Canada have been taken and testing was underway to identify the source,” Hall said.