Enviropig Overview

Sarah Spier, Presenter Author

01/26/2016 Added

127 Plays

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An overview of the Enviropig project and background information presenting the issue that genetically engineered pigs can solve. For more information visit the Enviropig website: https://ge.unl.edu/enviropig/

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[00:00:08.792]Animal agriculture is
[00:00:10.094]a major contributor to the increased amount
[00:00:11.952]of phosphorus in the environment.
[00:00:13.891]That is because it's found in animal manure.
[00:00:16.524]If you've ever worked around animal agriculture,
[00:00:18.522]you've probably noticed that animals produce
[00:00:20.288]quite a bit of manure.
[00:00:21.821]That means that there's a large amount of phosphorus
[00:00:24.561]going into the environment.
[00:00:26.488]Disposal of this phosphorus is a huge environmental concern.
[00:00:30.818]So what is the impact of increased environmental phosphorus?
[00:00:33.956]Well, what happens is, run-off from rain water
[00:00:36.857]brings this phosphorus into waterways,
[00:00:40.320]which then leads to a process called, "eutrophication."
[00:00:44.856]Eutrophication is an excess of nutrients,
[00:00:47.226]typically nitrogen or phosphorus, in a body of water.
[00:00:49.930]This is frequently due to agricultural run-off.
[00:00:52.587]If you've worked in agriculture, you probably recognized
[00:00:54.725]elements nitrogen and phosphorus,
[00:00:56.593]as they are both common in the field.
[00:00:59.521]So with this nutrient increase,
[00:01:01.158]it leads to a plant growth increase.
[00:01:03.422]So there will be large-scale algal blooms
[00:01:05.025]and other aquatic plant activity.
[00:01:07.983]Then, the biological oxygen demand increases
[00:01:10.890]because the decomposers break down the plants
[00:01:13.383]once they've died.
[00:01:14.826]They use a lot of this oxygen, which then leads
[00:01:16.924]to a decreased amount of dissolved oxygen
[00:01:19.259]in the water.
[00:01:20.617]Then, this leads to a stagnant body of water,
[00:01:23.218]because the animals in the water rely on this oxygen
[00:01:26.295]and it is suddenly a lot lower.
[00:01:30.823]So, this is kind of what eutrophication looks like
[00:01:34.352]at a small scale.
[00:01:35.826]You can see here that there is a dead fish.
[00:01:38.090]There's also a lot of murkiness in the water
[00:01:40.653]from the high amount of plant activity.
[00:01:43.094]Well, in this small scale, there's just one dead fish.
[00:01:45.983]But there can also be a larger scale impact
[00:01:49.187]of eutrophication.
[00:01:50.687]What happens is, it gets into the waterways.
[00:01:52.856]A stream like this is small, but keep in mind
[00:01:55.087]that streams continue to flow into larger
[00:01:57.351]and larger streams like the Mississippi River,
[00:02:00.022]for example.
[00:02:01.287]The Mississippi River has a lot of agricultural nutrients
[00:02:04.059]in it because it flows through the Midwest,
[00:02:06.719]which is a major agricultural hub.
[00:02:09.089]Once it flows through, it goes to the Gulf of Mexico
[00:02:11.724]and leads to examples like this.
[00:02:14.591]This may not be from the Mississippi River.
[00:02:16.287]This is actually the tip of the Florida peninsula.
[00:02:19.860]But, there are also major waterways
[00:02:21.521]that bring in a lot of agricultural sediment
[00:02:24.019]and also the agricultural nutrients.
[00:02:26.423]So, as you can see here, there's a lot
[00:02:28.594]of murkiness in this water, which is actually
[00:02:30.358]from eutrophication.
[00:02:32.425]This leads to major problems.
[00:02:34.225]For example, the economy is hurt
[00:02:35.827]because the fishing industry takes a major hit
[00:02:38.391]when there are large-scale fish deaths.
[00:02:41.492]There's also a reduction in biodiversity
[00:02:43.484]in the water because of these deaths.
[00:02:45.817]And, the smell can also be quite horrible.
[00:02:48.093]If anybody has lived on the Gulf of Mexico,
[00:02:50.657]they probably know this smell quite well
[00:02:53.457]when it occurs.
[00:02:55.895]So, why does this occur?
[00:02:57.091]Let's take this back to the animal physiology
[00:02:59.145]that causes this problem.
[00:03:01.454]Animals produce a lot of phosphorus
[00:03:03.184]because they lack the ability to break down phytate.
[00:03:05.690]They cannot utilize the phosphorus in their feed.
[00:03:08.488]Pigs and poultries are a large contributors to this.
[00:03:12.227]So, how do we solve this problem?
[00:03:14.093]We introduce a gene that reduces phosphorus
[00:03:16.251]in pig waste, creating Enviropig.
[00:03:19.422]The Enviropig gene actually creates phytase,
[00:03:23.591]which helps break down the phytate.
[00:03:25.459]This phytase occurs in their saliva,
[00:03:27.630]which then allows them to break down phosphorus better
[00:03:30.926]and then there's less phosphorus in their waste.
[00:03:34.724]The steps to this solution from a genetic standpoint are:
[00:03:38.091]First to develop a gene that decreases phosphorus in manure.
[00:03:41.386]The Enviropig gene.
[00:03:43.324]Then, use transformation processes to alter pig DNA.
[00:03:46.728]Once the pig DNA is altered, it is inserted into an embryo,
[00:03:50.618]and then grows into an adult pig that breeds with other--
[00:03:55.634]that breeds the transgenic pig with other pigs,
[00:03:58.744]leading to lines of pigs that have this new gene.
[00:04:02.590]Then, they test for successful transformation to make sure
[00:04:05.622]that this transgene is, in fact, implemented in the pigs.
[00:04:08.592]This is then used to create an environmentally-friendly pig.

Enviropig Overview

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