Gosh, the puns are just there, softballs, really, when you learn that Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormones known as Posilac a/k/a rBST or rBGH- a product developed to boost milk production in cows - is now being marketed as a way to increase the yield of farmed tilapia.
You've heard of chicken of the sea, well, now I guess it will be cow of the sea. According to a new announcement, Monsanto's Posilac is not only good for dairy farmers, the public, and the environment, but also for fish production. Gosh, is there anything Posilac is NOT good for?
Bovine Hormone Could Provide Boost to Tilapia Aquaculture
In collaboration with Monsanto Chemical Company and California Sea Grant, Hawaii Sea Grant Director Gordon Grau is characterizing the efficacy and safety of Monsanto's recombinant bovine growth hormone in raising aquacultured tilapia. His research will help gather information essential for determining whether this hormone has practical value in improving production and in reducing costs in the aquaculture of finish and shellfish. Grau's laboratory has established the recombinant bovine growth hormone does have significant growth-promoting effects in tilapia. The studies indicate the recombinant bovine growth hormone may have considerable practical value in tilapia aquaculture, and studies are now aiming at developing a practical method for treatment of tilapia fry.
Contact: Gordon Grau, Director, Hawaii Sea Grant, Phone: (808) 956-7031;
Email: sg-dir@soest.hawaii.edu
link
Apparently this development has been in the making for many years. You can find scientific studies going back for years on the use of rBST in fish, including tilapia, trout, and catfish.
May 2002 Recombinant bovine growth hormone treatment of tilapia: growth response, metabolic clearance, receptor binding and immunoglobulin production
January 2003 Effects of bovine growth hormone (Posilac®) on growth performance, body composition, and IGFBPs in two strains of channel catfish
December 2001 Stimulation of insulin-like growth factor-I production by recombinant bovine growth hormone in Mozambique tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus
December 2007 Effects of short-term growth hormone treatment on liver and muscle transcriptomes in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
More here
I'd milk this new information a bit more and might even add something about the scales of justice or going with the flow, but I might get some cat calls from those who would say there is just plain something fishy going on.
Just wait till you see the tilapia, pharmed salmon and trout, and catfish labeling fight over disclosing that the fish in your grocery store was injected with bovine growth hormones.