Scientists at Teagasc's research centres need to be part of international research into GMOs in order to quantify the risks associated with them and also to exploit their potential, according to Dr Liam Donnelly, director of the Dairy Products Research Centre at Moorepark in Co Cork.
Dr Donnelly, who is spearheading a major food and animal biotechnology programme as part of Teagasc's £25 million (€31.7 million) research programme over the next five years, says the agriculture and food development authority has no intention of producing genetically modified organisms, either at Moorepark or as part of its plant biotechnology programme at Oakpark in Carlow.
Twenty senior scientists are being recruited from within and outside the State. And the research centres expect to be "tooled up" in time to avail of some of the £560 million (€711 million) in funding available under the State's Foresight programme.
"Probably all we set out to achieve in our biotechnology programme can be achieved without putting new GMOs into the market," he insists. "This is biotechnology, working with DNA-related technology, to understand biological systems. This is not producing GMOs.
"We recognise research is needed to discharge our obligation to allay public concerns. We're doing all this with no intention of producing GMOs for the market, but to exploit the technology of GMO production when the consumer is fully confident in the technology."
And he insists: "We're not afraid of GMOs. As a scientific organisation, we fundamentally believe in the opportunities they represent and in the safety of GMO materials."
But he argues that the questions being raised can only be answered through science and not through public argument.
At the Dairy Products Research Centre, new techniques which enhance the flavour of cheeses have been developed through the identification of new flavour cultures for use in the fermentation process to produce extra mature cheddars, for example.
New varieties of cheeses are being developed; a major development has been a range of customised mozarella-type cheeses for the pizza sector. Microbiological research on the culture and physical research of low fat cheeses also has been advanced through process manipulation and changing the formulation of the cheese. "It's a holy grail to produce 50 per cent reduced-fat cheese that looks and tastes and feels the same as full fat," Dr Donnelly says.
The production of probiotics - in the form of a probiotic cheese at Moorepark - has major implications for the health food industry. The cheese is being subjected to clinical trials which, it is hoped, will reinforce the results of laboratory studies showing beneficial effects for the immunilogical status of humans. Probiotcs protect the digestive system, leading to protection against cancer and other diseases; they also fight pathogens which might arise after heavy doses of antibiotics.
Teagasc's major focus on the animal side will be on the development of biotechnological techniques for the more effective selection of breeding animals with improved economic characteristics.
This will be connected with genome research and focuses on identifying markers which would produce animals with more casein in their milk; finding a genetic marker for tenderness in beef and improving fertility rates in cows.
Other areas of research include work on non-antibiotic fed formulation to prevent diseases in pigs and microbial materials that would control mastitis in cows.
"It will become the centre of specialisation in gene technology in particular so that we will have a critical mass of scientists here who are internationally qualified and recognised," Dr Donnelly says.
