To solve this last issue, animal re-searcher Scott Kronberg at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) lab in Mandan, North Dakota, is feeding sheep flaxseed that has been treated to prevent conversion of ALA into saturated fat. Those sheep were found to have 25 percent more omega-3s in their muscle than did grain-fed animals. Grass-fed cattle also benefited by eating the treated flaxseed; their beef contained almost half a gram of omega-3s per eight-ounce serving. But most of those omega-3s were in the form of the less-useful ALA. “If we could come up with a cheaper source of EPA and DHA for feed, it would be worth looking at too,” Kronberg says.
Other researchers are doing just that. Bioprocess engineer Rafael Garcia of ARS and biochemical engineer Zhiyou Wen of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg are designing a study to grow EPA- and DHA-producing microbes using low-cost by-products of other processes, such as glycerol from biodiesel production and rendered animal protein from slaughterhouses. The microbes could then be used to make an inexpensive livestock feed supplement.
And then there is the EPA-enhanced pig genetically engineered by Randall Prather, a livestock reproductive biologist at the University of Missouri–Columbia National Swine Resource and Research Center. Prather cloned pigs that carried an enzyme for converting less-beneficial fatty acids into EPAs. Not only do the clones carry up to 15 times more EPA than do normal pigs, but they also appear leaner and more active. Prather’s pigs won’t be going to market anytime soon, however; no transgenic animal has yet been approved for human consumption in the United States. Although Prather has no plans for testing the enzyme on cattle, other researchers do. Can the omega-3 burger be far behind?
See DISCOVER's recent news story on the FDA's plan to regulate food from genetically engineered animals.
