Although the lamb has been categorised as posing no risk to humans or the environment, and indeed did not possess the jellyfish protein, the matter has been passed to the police, and the laboratory has admitted a member of staff concealed the incident, which happened last August.
The French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) acquired the genetically modified ewe as part of a research project on human cardiology. According to French reports, the Green Sheep project was launched in 2009 and involved studying sheep whose DNA had been modified with green fluorescent protein from jellyfish, which renders their cells transparent and enables scientists to better study the workings of disease.
The lamb, Rubis, was born in the spring of 2014. According to reports in the French press, the lamb was deliberately sent to an abattoir in what INRA president Benoît Malpaux described as a "malicious act".
A spokeswoman for INRA said there were "certain stresses and dysfunctions within the unit looking after the ewe lamb, as well as individual behaviours incompatible with the missions of a public service research institution".
She added that INRA carried out an immediate internal administrative inquiry, had suspended the member of staff who concealed the sale, and had put a halt to all experiments by the research unit concerned.