PLEASE
SEND THIS TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS, FORUNS. BLOGS, SITES Major
incidents involving GM maize with Bt toxins: Between 2001 and
2002, 12 dairy cows died on a farm in
Woelfersheim in the state of Hesse in Germany after being fed
Syngenta's Bt 176 maize; and other animals in the same herd had to
be slaughtered on account of mysterious illnesses [12]. The
Robert Koch Institute made little attempt to investigate the deaths
and illnesses and the local district council in Giessen issued a
statement in August 2003 stating that "the cause of incidents
referred to could not be determined."
We pointed out
[13] that Bt 176 suffers from the worst transgenic instability of
all the transgenic lines examined recently by French and Belgian
government scientists, who found that the company may also have
misidentified or misreported the particular Cry1A protein present.
Syngenta claims that the transgene in Bt176 is crylAb, but on
analysis, the sequence of the transgene was 94% similar to a
synthetic crylAc gene, and has only 65% homology with the native
cry1Ab gene of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp kurstaki, from which it
was supposed to have been derived.
This incident
highlights the regulatory sham surrounding Bt crops [14, 15]. Bt
toxins encompass a large superfamily of Cry proteins made by
different strains of B. thuringiensis. The Bt transgenes
incorporated into GM crops, however, are often synthesized in the
laboratory, containing truncated (pre-activated) versions of the
natural toxins (as in the case of Mon810) which means that they can
harm non-target insects and other animals, or changes in amino acid
sequences, or hybrid sequences of two or more Cry toxins, such that
the toxicities to insect pests and other animals are totally
unknown and untested. Yet, regulators have routinely accepted
toxicity and allergenicity tests based on the natural toxins
isolated from B. thuringiensis.
2- Mon810 Last year, scores
of villagers in the south of the Philippines living near fields
planted with Dekalb 818 YG - which turns out to be a hybrid between
Mon810 and a locally adapted variety (Dekalb 818) - became ill when
the maize started to flower. Dr. Terje Traavik, director of
the Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, found antibodies reacting
against the Bt toxin Cry1Ab, which is produced by Mon810, in the
sera of 39 farmers who were affected. He reported this finding,
along with other results of research in progress during a workshop
preceding the Meeting of the Parties of the Cartagena Biosafety
Protocol in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 22 February 2004. He
considered those results too important for public health to wait
until the scientific reports appear in print after a lengthy
"peer-review" process, and wanted to issue a timely
warning to the delegates attending the official biosafety meeting
This provoked an
immediate reaction from the pro-GM lobby, which has been running a
campaign to discredit Traavik ever since. Traavik has reaffirmed
his findings in answer to his critics [16]: "We have used
direct and inhibitory ELISAs (enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assays)
to demonstrate IgA, IgG and IgM antibodies specifically binding to
Bt-toxin Cry1Ab in sera from Philippine farmers. A general
interpretation would be that the farmers had been exposed, in an
immunologically meaningful way, to Cry1Ab, or an antigen sharing
epitopes with Cry1Ab, during the last 6-9 months before blood
samples were taken. This might indicate coincidence in time between
three observed events: the very first pollination season for
Bt-transgenic maize, an outbreak of respiratory/intestinal disease
among individuals living close to the Bt-maize field, and the
production of serum antibodies. I strongly emphasized that the
tests could not establish any cause-effect relationships between
the 3 events, neither could the results preclude such
relationships, and hence they might represent an early warning. As
I said at the time, even if I had been able to prese nt the
detection of specific anti-Cry1Ab IgE antibodies, my conclusions
would have been the same." The companies have
repeatedly denied that Bt toxins are allergenic, but there are
reports in scientific literature that Cry1Ac is a strong immunogen
[17-19], and hence a potential allergen. Cry1Ac shares many Cry1A
epitopes with CrylAb. Furthermore, as Travvik points out, "Bacillus
thuringiensis spraying has elicited specific Cry1A antibodies in
farm workers, within the same classes we detected, as well as
allergy-related IgE antibodies. These findings were published
already in 1999.." [20]. Recently,
researchers in Japan's National Institutes of Animal Health, Food
Research, and Livestock and Grassland Science found that Cry1Ab
protein in GM maize Bt11 survives digestion in the gut of pigs [21,
22]. Its digestibility was estimated to be 92% by comparison with
indigestible chromic oxide. Researchers from the Center for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana Cuba had earlier identified
6 proteins in the brush border that bind specifically to Cry1Ac
[23, 24], a toxin in the same family as Cry1Ab. Conclusion ---- From InfoNature.Org
Evidences that GMOs seriously damage
the health of Animals/Humans
Watch
the excelent documentary "future of food" about GMO
food:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6775597541955404580
*
* *
Finally, we draw your
attention to two incidents involving GM maize containing Bt toxins
(from soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis). Only one case is
under investigation by scientists. More info at:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/COAR.php
1-
Syngenta's Bt176
In
conclusion, we consider the approval of NK603xMon810 and other GM
maize mentioned, T25 and Bt176, to be a serious abuse of science in
face of scientific and other evidence indicating that these GM
crops pose serious health risks.
Dr.
Mae-Wan Ho
Prof. Joe Cummins
Institute of Science
in Society
And Independent Science Panel