A PESTICIDE gene only approved for use in maize for animal feed may have
jumped into a corn variety destined for people.
The discovery comes just two months after StarLink corn, which was engineered
to contain the gene, turned up in foods such as taco shells, sparking a recall
of about 800 different products in the US.
The gene鈥檚 product, Cry9C, makes maize more resistant to the European corn
borer. Because of concerns that the protein might cause an allergic reaction in
humans, StarLink can only be fed to animals. But Aventis CropScience, which
developed StarLink, has now found traces in another variety.
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鈥淎ventis CropScience does not know how Cry9C protein came to be present in a
variety other than StarLink brand seeds,鈥� the company says in a press
release.
Aventis found the protein in maize produced by Garst Seed of Slater, Iowa.
Garst also produces StarLink corn for Aventis, but it isn鈥檛 supposed to use
Cry9C in any other variety.
Jeff Lacina, a spokesman for Garst Seed, says his company discovered traces
of Cry9C in a seed sample from 1998. The company doesn鈥檛 yet know how much of
the maize was produced, he says, or where it was sold. 鈥淔irst, we have to see
which lots were affected. Then we have to track [them] through the system,鈥�
Lacina says.
It鈥檚 not clear if the sample was simply contaminated with seeds of StarLink
corn, or if the gene for Cry9C has actually jumped into the other corn
variety.
Earlier this year, a GM sugar beet being developed by Aventis in Europe
accidentally gained resistance to two kinds of herbicide when one variety
pollinated another in a seed company鈥檚 greenhouse
(快猫短视频, 21 October, p 6).