A Canadian study has shown that transgenic Atlantic salmon can mate with the brown trout, BBC reported.
The fish have been genetically modified and given extra genes to make them grow larger for human consumption.
The company responsible for the genetically modified salmon, AquaBounty, claims the salmon pose very little threat to the environment, as they are all female and sterile. They also claimed there was hardly any chance that the fish would ever escape into the wild.
The fish are being considered by the U.S. government to be the first-ever genetically modified animal fit for human consumption.
Salmon do occasionally mate with brown trout in the wild, but laboratory research found the modified salmon could also produce offspring with another species.
The offspring of the modified salmon developed much more quickly than other young fish, and also grew larger.
When the fish were put in a simulated stream, the laboratory found that the offspring hybrids beat both the genetically modified fish and the wild salmon in the competition for food, the severely stunted the growth of the other fish.
While the risk is low for a genetically modified fish to escape into the natural water system, the study highlighted the problems that could occur in that situation.
"It is worth noting that in 1995, Peter Galbreath and Gary Thorgaard of Washington State University published research that the Atlantic salmon-brown trout hybrid is sterile. If this holds true, such a hybrid would pose little ecological threat as the fish would not reproduce," said Ron Stotish, CEO of AquaBounty Technologies Inc. "Moreover, AquaBounty has stipulated that we will market only sterile, all female AquAdvantage salmon - with specific tests being performed on every commercial batch of fish to assure our product meets our specifications," he stated.
The United States Food and Drug Administration is now in the final stages of deciding whether the genetically-modified fish will ever hit the shelves.
