The Effect of Genetically Modified Food on the Level of Some Steroid Hormones in Chickens: A Pilot Study

The advanced biological technologies, including genetic engineering, have an important role in providing the requirements for the large demands of food for human if they are used in the right direction and in accordance with the control of safety procedures and within the ethics of scientific researches, since the chicken constitutes one of the important food for mankind, samples were taken from chicken at the same weight and age, and were divided into two groups: the first being a control group that were feed with regular food for 1, 14, and 28 days and the second group was feed with genetically modified food  for the same time period (for both groups and for each time point the used number of the chicken was = 15). The levels of testosterone and progesterone hormones were measured using the ELISA device and determination of heavy metal (pb and Cd). The results showed the presence of highly significant differences (p<0.0001) in [testosterone] after 28 days of feeding with GMF with no significant differences (p=0.9996 and p=0.5305) in those which were feed for (1 or 14) days. As for progesterone level, there was a highly significant difference (p=0.0003) in those after 14 days of feeding with GMF and very highly increase (p<0.0001) after 28 days of GMF feeding compared with those that were on a regular food with non- significant differences after1 day of GMF feeding. As for heavy metal (pb and Cd) shows highly concentration of serum in chicken Pb (1.453) and Cd (1.511).