A summary of EuroFAANG’s work connecting ethics committees, researchers, and industry on the future of genome editing in farmed animals.

Genome editing could transform how Europe breeds healthier, more resilient farm animals — but only if the science, the regulation, and public trust move
forward together. Over the past year, the EuroFAANG Research Infrastructure project has been building exactly the kind of network needed to make that
happen: a European think-tank connecting ethics committees, research projects, and infrastructures, backed by a growing web portal to keep the conversation
going.

Here’s what’s emerged so far.

How This Came Together

•        A World Café workshop at the FABRE-TP Annual General Meeting in Brussels (May 2023), gathering 40 stakeholders from breeding, academia, and industry

•      The first closed think-tank meeting, held virtually in October 2023 under a signed NDA to allow fully open discussion

•      52 experts took part — invited from a pool of 100 — spanning breeding companies and associations (41%), academia (37%), and research centres (22%), with participants joining from across Europe as well as Canada, the US, and Kenya

The Barriers Standing in the Way

•        We still don’t fully understand genome function — well-validated editing targets are limited

•       Predicting exactly what an edit will do in a live animal remains difficult

•       Off-target effects and mosaicism in edited animals are unresolved technical risks

•       The most valuable traits — disease resistance, feed efficiency — are polygenic, meaning they need multiplex editing techniques that are still immature

•      Current editing methods (embryo transfer, laparoscopic surgery) don’t yet scale to real farm settings

•      Regulation and public attitudes vary widely from one country to the next

•      Even basic terms like “genome editing” and “GMO” lack agreed definitions

•      The CRISPR licensing landscape is a legal maze, with commercial fees that academic research doesn’t face

•        Traceability is a major open question: once an edited animal breeds, how do you track its edited descendants?

•       Farming already carries public trust challenges that this technology inherits

The Opportunities Driving the Work Forward

•       Disease resistance already achieved — for PRRS virus in pigs and avian influenza in poultry, with active work underway on African Swine Fever

•       Surrogate sire strategies, which spread edited genetics through a population without any edited animal ever entering the food chain

•       Faster genetic progress on traits that are nearly impossible to breed for conventionally

•       Better in vitro testing tools — organoids and cell cultures — to validate edits safely before they reach a live animal

•       A genuine lever for climate adaptation, from methane reduction to pandemic preparedness

•        High-throughput CRISPR screening already producing results relevant to emerging animal diseases

One distinction stood out in discussion: edits that mimic naturally occurring genetic variation may be viewed far more favourably — by regulators and the public alike — than edits creating entirely new genetic combinations. That single distinction could shape the whole regulatory future of the technology.

Where the Group Wants to Focus Next

•     Talking directly to consumers, not just regulators and industry

•      Educating the entire food supply chain, from farm to fork

•     More testing and validation of genomic variants

•      Building the technical capacity to scale genome editing safely

•      A volunteer subgroup has already formed to standardise terminology — a sign of how much foundational work remains

The Bottom Line

Genome editing, paired with sound breeding practices, could meaningfully improve the health, productivity, and welfare of farmed animals across Europe. Getting there depends on the science, the regulation, and public trust advancing in step — and that’s exactly what this think-tank exists to support.