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Free New Zealand in Food & Environment,
04 th April 2005 The scientists have backed consumer-group concerns that testing and monitoring of 'Bt10' maize- accidentally grown and marketed as 'Bt11' is inadequate and have called for publication of the data that Food Authorities in New Zealand and Australia claim is held by US authorities and shows all proteins from the plants to be 'identical'. " It appears the Food Authorities here have little idea how much Bt11 maize has entered the food chain, where it has been used, or who has eaten it, " says Jon Carapiet from GE free NZ in food and environment. "All they seem able to say is that it's probably in just a little bit of imported food and the US government says its safe so they aren't going to worry about it" That is simply unacceptable as the basis for applying what Governments' claim to be a scientifically-sound and robust food safety system. " It's like they are making it up as they go along. How can the public maintain confidence in such a system when in the EU a whole new testing regime is being proposed because the current system is failing." The UK-based Institute of Science in Society has issued a detailed report on the Bt 10 problem ( see below) which calls into question claims made by officials here. A senior New Zealand scientist is also critical of the comments made in the Food Safety Authority fact sheet. "'Proteins produced by BT10 have been confirmed ... to be identical to those produced by BT11 corn' is completely unscientific. Which proteins? How identical? Completely or nearly? All or some? " he says. GE Free NZ in food and environment is calling for a radical overhaul of the Food Standards and Food Safety Authorities to close the gaps in current systems revealed in the Bt 10 fiasco. "This is a classic case-study of how things can go wrong," says Jon Carapiet. The issues that urgently need to be addressed include: How come the
wrong GE seed was shipped in error for up to 4 years? What system
is in place to prevent repeats ? Until these
basic issues are faced by the Authorities their actions in ENDS Jon Carapiet 0210 507 681 References 1) Australia
New Zealand Food Standards Authority Fact Sheet - 30 March Independent Scientific Commentary - I-SIS, UK - 30 March 2005 Fact sheet : Release of unapproved genetically modified (GM) corn A variety of
GM corn that does not have regulatory approval in Australia and
other countries has been accidentally grown and released into the
food and feed supply in the United States. A very small amount of
this An article published
in the journal, Nature, on 22 March 2005 reported that a variety
of genetically modified corn that did not have regulatory approval
was distributed in the United States by accident over a Syngenta disclosed
these findings to the United States authorities in late 2004. This
information has only recently come to the attention of FSANZ. According
to Syngenta, seed produced from BT10 corn would have Syngenta has stated that, while very unlikely, small volumes of harvested BT10 grain (0.002%) may have been used as animal feed or processed food and may have been exported to some countries, including Australia. The BT10 corn
is closely related to BT11 corn, a genetically modified corn variety
that has been approved for use in livestock feed and for human food
use in Australia since August 2001. BT11 corn is approved for FSANZ has concluded that there is unlikely to be any food safety concern in the event that BT10 corn has inadvertently entered the food supply in Australia or other countries since: · The amounts of BT10 corn that may have entered the food supply would have been extremely small. · Proteins
produced by BT10 have been confirmed by united states regulatory
authorities to be identical to those produced by BT11 corn, a fully
approved product for animal feed and human use in a number of 30 March 2005
Prof. Joe Cummins and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho demand a full disclosure of all available data for damage limitation Farmers who bought Syngenta’s genetically modified (GM) maize Bt11 may, in fact have got more than they bargained for, because many received another GM variety Bt10 that may be worse. The news broke in the science journal Nature. Several hundred tonnes of the unapproved GM maize variety Bt10 had been "inadvertently" distributed under the Bt11 label between the years 2001 and 2004. Syngenta claimed that Bt11 and Bt10 are physically identical [1], but this is impossible to achieve in the current state of the GM technology, and is at odds with its own reports to USDA/APHIS in 1994. Eleven years ago the Northrup-King company (later taken over by Syngenta) reported that Bt10 produced several times less toxin than Bt11 even though the two lines were modified with similar sets of transgenes; but the transgenes had inserted at different sites in the maize genome. Bt11 has been
approved for consumption in Argentina, Australia, Canada, China,
European Union, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Russia, South Africa,
Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay [2].
Substituting
the unapproved GM maize Bt10 for Bt11 is a very serious breach of
safety. But Bt11 maize is already bad enough, and should never have
been approved ("Approval of Bt11 maize endangers humans and
livestock", SiS 23). The European Commission gave it approval
in May 2004 when expert committees repeatedly failed to reach an
agreement. French and Belgian government scientists had reported
"rearrangements, truncations and unexpected insertions"
in Bt11. The main insert appeared to have landed in what turns out
to be a suspected "megatransposon" involved in exchanging
segments between chromosomes, making the variety potentially very
unstable. Bt11 was also contaminated with another Syngenta GM maize,
Bt176, also found to be unstable and misidentified ("Unstable
According to
the petition from Northup-King [6], Bt11 (and also Bt10) was constructed
using the Cry1Ab toxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis var kurstaki
that had been altered extensively and the protein shortened to enhance
_expression in maize, and controlled by a cauliflower mosaic virus
35S promoter enhanced by a maize alcohol dehydrogenase intron, and
the nos transcription terminator from Agrobacterium. A second transgene
coding for phosphoinothricin acetyl transferase (PAT) from An appendix [7] to the Northrup King petition compared the production of the events Bt11 and Bt10. The Bt10 event was not characterized as to the chromosomal site of integration nor was there extensive analysis of the gene inserts and their protein products. The study showed that Bt11 produced about seven times more toxin protein than Bt10, indicating a clear difference between the two events. Farmers unknowingly planting Bt10 in place of Bt11 would be prone to experience insect resistance in the low toxin maize. An advice on Bt11 from UK’s ACRE (Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment) [8], made reference to data provided by Syngenta to support its claim that the ampicillin resistance marker gene was absent from Bt11, in which Bt10 was used as a positive control. This implies that the antibiotic resistance marker gene is indeed present in Bt10. Syngenta has now admitted to this [9], but a spokesperson from the company downplayed the significance of the antibiotic resistance marker gene. Ampicillin is a widely used clinical antibiotic, and the European Food Safety Authority, the Codex Alimentarius, and many medical and scientific experts have recommended against using antibiotic resistance genes in GM foods, hence Bt10 is unlikely to have received regulatory approval in Europe. There are also as yet unconfirmed reports that the Bt10 inserts have a promoter different from Bt11 and that the enhancer has been altered. The Australia-New Zealand Food Authority reported that the Bt11 PAT gene is driven by the 35S figwort mosaic virus [10] instead of the 35SCaMV promoter reported to USDA/APHIS and the European regulatory authorities. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported more than one Cry1Ab toxin protein produced in Bt11, these included proteins of 69kDa, 65kDa and two minor ones of 40kDa and 15kDa [11]; suggesting that the toxin is processed or degraded in Bt11 maize. The toxins produced in event Bt10 have not been reported to public and this information should be made available immediately. There was a long delay between the discovery of large plantings of Bt10 and the report to the public. Syngenta, the FDA [12] and UK DEFRA (Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) [13] have all initially claimed that Bt10 and Bt11 are identical. This claim was made in the face of clear evidence that the two events were different, according to information available to UK’s ACRE at least since 2003 [14]. There must now
be a full disclosure of all available data to limit the damages
being done. 2. Agbios Bt11 approvals http://www.agbios.com/ 3. US Food and
Drug Administration Biotechnology Consultation Agency 4. US Food and Drug Administration Biotechnology Consultation Note on the File BNF No.000017 1996 http://www.cfscan.fda.gov 5. Payne J. USDA/APHIS Petition 95-195-01 for Determination of Nonregulated Status for Bt11 Corn 1996. 6. Pilacinski W and Williams D. Petition for Determination of Nonreguloated Status for: Insect protection corn expressing the Cry1Ab gene from Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki 1995. 7. Hanten J and Meeusen R. Petition for Determination of Nonreguloated Status for: Insect protection corn expressing the Cry1Ab gene from Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki Appendix G Determination of levels of plant produced Bacillus thuringiensis kuastaki HD-1 proteins in transgenic maize. 1994. 8. Advisory
Committee on Releases to the Environment. Advice on a notification
for marketing of insect resistant and herbicide tolerant GM 9. "Stray
seeds had antibiotic-resistance genes" Colin Macilwain, Nature
online, 29 March 2005. 10. Australia-NewZealand Food Authority Draft Risk Analysis Report Application A386 Food derived from insect protected herbicide tolerant Bt11 corn 2000. 11.Canadian
Food Inspection Agency Decision Document DD96-12: determination
of environment safety of Northrup King Seeds European corn borer
12. Press Release:
Following Syngenta-initiated investigation of unintended corn release,
EPA and USDA conclude existing food safety clearance applies, no
human health or environmental concerns, Washington, DC (USA), 21
March 2005, Syngenta web site. 13. DEFRA Press
Release, 23 March 2005 (see below) 14. "DEFRA accused of key role in GM contamination cover-up", Press Notice from GM Free Cymru 30 March 2005
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