Fw: [BITES-L] bites Oct. 7/10 -- II
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Subject: [BITES-L] bites Oct. 7/10 -- II
bites Oct. 7/10 -- II
Raw clams sicken 60 with campy in NY
Colbert Report skewers raw milk
Raw bean sprouts confirmed in UK salmonella outbreak; 169 sick
US: Living Foods Inc. initiates a voluntary market withdrawal of alfalfa sprouts because of possible health risk
MELBOURNE ex-mayor faces food safety charges
Swimmers barfing, condoms clogging toilets at Commonwealth Games
CHINA: Noodles found to violate food safety regulations
US: FDA seeks to stop juice company's processing, distribution
Life-saving in the bacterial world: How Campylobacter rely on Pseudomonas to infect humans
One quarter of MANITOBA pork producers using needle free injection technology
US: New study shows benefits of Bt corn to farmers
Transgenic corn suppresses European corn borer, saves farmers billions
In WISCONSIN, 75 percent of economic benefit of Bt corn goes to farmers who don't plant it
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Raw clams sicken 60 with campy in NY
07.oct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144434/10/10/07/raw-clams-sicken-60-campy-ny
The Onondaga County Health Department says 60 people have become ill because of raw clams served at an event at Hinerwadel's Grove in North Syracuse.
The Health Department says so far, all of the illnesses have been linked to a clambake September 15th for the CNY Builders Exchange. Approximately 3,800 members attended that clambake.
The reported symptoms are related to campylobacter, a bacterial infection that causes diarrhea, cramps, and fever. The incubation period for the infection is usually two to five days, but it can last as long as 10 days. Symptoms can last up to two weeks.
The Health Department is asking that anyone who ate at the facility and became ill to call (315) 435-6607.
http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/60-cases-of-illness-linked-to-Hinerwadels-Grove/5FtxSnY-s0-0ywn5Z79Z_w.cspx
Colbert Report skewers raw milk
07.oct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144438/10/10/07/colbert-report-skewers-raw-milk
The Colbert Report last night took some well-earned shots at raw milk last night (the segment is below).
Playing his Captain Freedom card, Colbert said "the nanny state is always sticking its nose into our business, from baby seats to motorcycle helments," and in response to the proprieters of Rawesome Foods in Venice, Calif., which was raided for selling raw milk and also now features raw camel's milk, Colbert deadpanned, "Raw milk, straight from the udder, just the way our founding fathers and their camels intended it."
The Colbert Report is satire, playing riffs on daily news events; it's not real news (although many think it is).
Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration food safety czar, David Acheson, was also interviewed for the piece and, according to Colbert, played the "bloody diarrhea" card, while Rep. Ron Paul said this is "pasteurization without representation."
There are lots of risky foods and Americans are free to pick their poisons. But no one wants bloody diarrhea from a staple food that is used to nourish children, especially when pasteurization offers a solution.
http://www.colbertnation.com/home
Raw bean sprouts confirmed in UK salmonella outbreak; 169 sick
07.oct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144439/10/10/07/raw-bean-sprouts-confirmed-uk-salmonella-outbreak-169-sick
Microbiologists at the Health Protection Agency's Centre for Infections (CFI) in Colindale have confirmed the link between contaminated bean sprouts and 141 cases of Salmonella Bareilly in the UK (The Daily Mail reports the number sickened as of today at 169).
Specialists in the CFI's Salmonella Reference Unit report that the strain of Salmonella Bareilly isolated from a bean sprout sample is indistinguishable from the strain of S. Bareilly isolated from human samples.
Bean sprouts had already featured strongly in a case control study in which people who had suffered from S. Bareilly infection and controls (people who did not become ill) were questioned about what they had eaten prior to the onset of illness.
However, both the HPA and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) stress that bean sprouts are safe to eat provided that they are washed and cooked until piping hot before consumption or are clearly labelled as ready-to-eat.
Such advice fails to account for potential cross-contamination in home or food service kitchens during preparation.
http://www.hpa.org.uk/NewsCentre/NationalPressReleases/2010PressReleases/101007BeansproutlinktosalmonellaBareilly/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1318459/Salmonella-alert-uncooked-bean-sprouts-169-people-fall-ill-UK-August.html?ITO=1490
US: Living Foods Inc. initiates a voluntary market withdrawal of alfalfa sprouts because of possible health risk
07.oct.10
FDA
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm228692.htm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Out of an abundance of caution, Living Foods, Inc. of Ionia, Michigan is recalling bulk and retail-size packages of Alfalfa Sprouts, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.
The alfalfa sprouts were distributed to retail and food service facilities through wholesale produce suppliers in Michigan.
The products subject to this market withdrawal include:
* Four (4) 1-pound bags of alfalfa sprouts, packaged in unlabeled 1-pound plastic bags in a box labeled as Living Foods, Inc. ALFALFA SPROUTS, with a SELL BY DATE of 10/2/2010.
* Five (5) Pound Bulk Container (bag in a box) of alfalfa sprouts labeled as, Living Foods, Inc. ALFALFA SPROUTS, with a SELL BY DATE of 10/2/2010.
* 4-ounce cup alfalfa sprouts labeled as Living Foods, Inc. ALFALFA SPROUTS, with a SELL BY DATE of 10/2/2010. UPC Code: 0 26684 10006 5.
* 4-ounce bag alfalfa sprouts labeled as Living Foods, Inc. ALFALFA SPROUTS, with a SELL BY DATE of 10/2/2010. UPC Code 0 26684 10004 1.
No illnesses have been reported to date.
A single package of Living Foods, Inc. ALFALFA SPROUTS tested positive for Salmonella spp. The company is working closely with the FDA and the State of Michigan to determine the cause of the problem.
Consumers who have purchased these products should discard them.
Wholesalers and retailers in possession of this product should remove the product from sale and cease distribution.
Consumers with questions may contact Living Foods, Inc. at the number listed above.
MELBOURNE ex-mayor faces food safety charges
07.oct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144440/10/10/07/melbourne-ex-mayor-faces-food-safety-charges
The lord mayor of Melbourne from 2001-2008, John So, has been charged with running a dirty restaurant by the council he used to lead.
Melbourne City Council has filed charges against Mr So and a company he is a director of, Doshay Pty Ltd, over food safety breaches at the Dragon Boat on the Yarra restaurant.
The case was adjourned in Melbourne Magistrates' Court yesterday because Mr So's barrister was unavailable to represent him, so details of the allegedly unhygienic practices could not be read out in the court.
But this is not the first time one of Mr So's restaurants has come under the glare of Melbourne Council for breaching food regulations.
The Herald Sun reports that on its website, the Dragon Boat on the Yarra claims to specialize in live seafood with "a team consisting of the best chefs in Melbourne."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/ex-mayor-john-so-faces-food-safety-charges/story-e6frfh4f-1225935691892
Swimmers barfing, condoms clogging toilets at Commonwealth Games
07.oct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144441/10/10/07/swimmers-barfing-condoms-clogging-toilets-commonwealth-games
The British swim squad at the Commonwealth games has been decimated by Delhi belly since arriving in India.
Rob Mancini wrote a couple of days ago about two instances; the number of sick British swimmers has now risen to 40.
The Telegraph reported that it later emerged that the Australian swimming team are testing the water quality at the aquatics complex. The problem could even stem from pigeon droppings which can swell contagious diseases. Pigeons have been nesting in the rafters since competition began here.
Whatever is causing swimmers to barf, toilets in the athletes' village are clogged with condoms.
Plumbers sent to unblock toilets said used condoms were the problem, with an un-named health official quoted as saying 2,000 of the 8,000 free contraceptives had been used so far.
Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell said the report was a positive, adding,
"I am not quite sure what the point is, if that is happening it shows that there is use of condoms and I think that is a very positive story, that athletes are being responsible.
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/blog/144397/10/10/05/australians-fall-ill-commonwealth-games
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/forty-british-swimmers-hit-with-delhi-belly-at-commonwealth-games/story-e6freonf-1225935468888
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/commonwealthgames/8047563/Commonwealth-Games-2010-Fran-Halsall-defies-illness-and-blocked-toilets-in-50m-heats.html
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-sport/condoms-clog-athlete-toilets-report-20101007-169gg.html
CHINA: Noodles found to violate food safety regulations
07.oct.10
Taipei Times
Shelley Huang
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2010/10/08/2003484859
The Consumers' Foundation yesterday revealed the results of its latest inspection of noodles and noodle-related products, and found that several contained antiseptics and preservatives at amounts exceeding legal limits.
In July and August, the consumer rights watchdog purchased 60 types of uncooked noodles, Chinese pita, dumpling dough, wonton dough and noodle sausages from traditional food stalls, specialty noodle shops, supermarkets and retail chains nationwide to conduct sample testing.
The tests showed that three out of the seven types of noodle sausage and one type of udon noodle tested contained peroxide, which is used as a type of antiseptic, but is not allowed in foodstuffs because it harms the gastrointestinal system and can even heighten the risk of cancer, said Yu Kai-hsiung, publisher of Consumer magazine.
The type of food that had the highest rate of violations during testing was wonton dough, as seven out of eight types tested, or 87.5 percent, contained benzoic acid, Yu said.
US: FDA seeks to stop juice company's processing, distribution
07.oct.10
FDA
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm228695.htm
At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice today filed a complaint for permanent injunction against a Brooklyn juice company to prevent it from processing and distributing juice products.
Delores H. Campbell and Winston A. Fearon and their company, Juices Incorporated (also known as Juices International and Juices Enterprises), are charged with violating the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by failing to have a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan for certain juice products, such as the company's carrot and beet juice products. The FDA requires all juice processors to have and implement HACCP plans that identify and control food hazards associated with their juices.
Among the violations observed by FDA investigators were failures to:
· adequately heat and refrigerate low-acid vegetable juices to destroy or prevent growth of dangerous microorganisms
· properly clean food-contact surfaces
· maintain plumbing in a manner that avoids a source of possible food and water contamination.
Failure to identify and control food hazards could lead to the formation of Clostridium botulinum (C. bot.) bacteria that can germinate in the carrot and beet juices made by the company. The neurotoxin formed by C. bot., when ingested in even very small amounts, could cause paralysis, difficulty breathing and potentially death from asphyxiation. In 2006, six cases of botulism in the United States and Canada were linked to refrigerated carrot juice. However, the FDA is not aware of illnesses associated with Juices Incorporated's juice products.
The complaint also charges Juices Incorporated, Campbell and Fearon with failing to conform to current good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements for making, packing, or holding human food. Juice products that are produced under conditions that do not comply with HACCP or GMP requirements are considered adulterated under the Act.
The FDA's most recent inspection of the Juices facility in March 2010 found the same or similar violations observed during previous inspections of the company. The agency issued warning letters to the company in April 2008 and October 2009, and the company promised to bring its operations into compliance but did not make the necessary changes.
"Today's action shows that FDA will seek enforcement action to make sure that those companies that must have preventative controls in place to ensure the safety of their products adhere to all applicable requirements," said Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs Dara A. Corrigan.
"Consumers must have a comfort level that the products they buy in their markets are safe to eat and to drink," said Loretta E. Lynch, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "We will continue to act with the FDA to ensure that companies that produce food and juice under dangerous conditions take corrective action."
The company purchases ingredients, such as carrots and beets, that originate outside of New York and sells products to food service establishments primarily in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
Various violations involved the following brands: Double Trouble Carrot Punch, Carrot Juice Drink, Carrot & Ginger Drink, Beet Carrot Juice Drink, Agony Peanut Punch, Cashew Punch, and Irish Sea Moss. Other company products stored at the facility during FDA visits were: Front End Lifter Magnum Punch, Ginger Beer, Sorrell Drink, Pineapple Twist and Soursop Juice.
Life-saving in the bacterial world: How Campylobacter rely on Pseudomonas to infect humans
07.oct.10
University of Veterinary Medicine – Vienna
Friederike Hilbert
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/uovm-lit100710.php
Many a holiday is ruined by food poisoning, frequently caused by the bacterium Campylobacter jejuni. Although Campylobacter infections are rarely life-threatening they are extremely debilitating and have been linked with the development of Guillain-Barré syndrome, one of the leading causes of non-trauma-induced paralysis worldwide.
Campylobacter jejuni is well adapted to life in the guts of animals and birds, where it is often found in very high levels. However, to infect humans it also needs to be able to survive outside the gut, on the surface of meat that will be eaten by humans. It is known that C. jejuni cannot grow under normal atmospheric conditions – the levels of oxygen are too high for it – so how it survives was until recently unknown. The mystery has now been solved by Friederike Hilbert and colleagues at the Institute of Meat Hygiene, Meat Technology and Food Science of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.
The surface of meat harbours a number of species of bacteria that – fortunately – are rarely harmful to humans, although they are associated with spoilage. It seems possible that the various species interact and Hilbert hypothesized that such interactions might help bacteria such as Campylobacter jejuni survive under hostile, oxygen-rich conditions. She thus tested the survival of C. jejuni in the presence of various meat-spoiling bacteria. When incubated alone or together with bacteria such as Proteus mirabilis or Enterococcus faecalis, Campylobacter survived atmospheric oxygen levels for no longer than 18 hours. However, when incubated together with various strains of Pseudomonas, Campylobacter were found to survive for much longer, in some cases over 48 hours, which would be easily long enough to cause infection.
There were differences in the extent of prolonged survival depending on the sources of the Campylobacter analysed but all isolates of all strains clearly survived significantly longer in the presence of Pseudomonas bacteria than when cultured alone. And the Campylobacter cells did not change shape when cultured together with Pseudomonas under oxygen-rich conditions, unlike when they were cultured alone, providing further indications of an interaction between the species. Interestingly, there is no evidence that the Pseudomonas benefit at all from the interaction, although they effectively save the lives of the Campylobacter.
Hilbert's findings show clearly that the presence of Pseudomonas bacteria is responsible for significantly enhanced survival of the disease-causing Campylobacter bacteria on the surface of meat. The results have implications for the control of meat, especially poultry, destined for human consumption. As Hilbert says, "On the basis of this study it should be possible to elucidate new mechanisms for limiting the level of Campylobacter on chicken meat and thus the incidence of food poisoning could be much reduced."
The paper Survival of Campylobacter jejuni under Conditions of Atmospheric Oxygen Tension with the Support of Pseudomonas spp. by Friederike Hilbert, Manuela Scherwitzel, Peter Paulsen and Michael P. Szostak is published in the September issue of the Journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology (Vol. 76, 5911-5917). The work was funded in part by the European Commission via an FP6 project, PoultryFlorGut (contract no. FOOD-CT-2005-007076).
One quarter of MANITOBA pork producers using needle free injection technology
07.oct.10
Farmscape
Bruce Cochrane
Manitoba Pork Council reports approximately one quarter of the province's pork producers have switched from needles and syringes to needle free administration of medications and vaccines.
Last November Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives introduced a program under which pork producers enrolled in the Canadian Quality Assurance Program are eligible for rebates of up to two thousand dollars for the purchase of a needle free injector.
Manitoba Pork Council quality assurance and labor programs manager Miles Beaudin says, of the approximately 620 farms on the CQA program in Manitoba, about 150 have purchased or are in the process of purchasing a gun.
Clip-Miles Beaudin-Manitoba Pork Council:
By not having a needle penetrate the skin of an animal you do bring at least three big areas of improvement.
Needleless injectors don't have needles so there's no needles to break in the animal.
Broken needles is a physical hazard and we try to do our best not to have broken needles in pork obviously.
Another big advantage of using needleless technology is that there is a significant reduction of disease transmission between injections.
Typically with a needle we recommend that you change the needle every 10 to 20 injections.
With a needleless injector there's no needles and you reduce disease transfer by 75 percent and that's not cleaning the orifice at the end.
We believe that if you clean the orifice at the end you could almost have maybe 100 percent reduction in disease transfer from one injection to the other.
The third area where there's a major improvement is there's a better uptake in medication from the animal so then the animal itself can respond better to the medication, equal or better than using a needle and syringe.
Beaudin expects money to be available under the program for the next two years and he hopes to see more farmers adopting the use of needle free technology.
US: New study shows benefits of Bt corn to farmers
07.oct.10
ARS News Service
Jan Suszkiw
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2010/101007.htm
WASHINGTON -- A group of agricultural scientists reported in today's issue of the journal Science that corn that has been genetically engineered to produce insect-killing proteins isolated from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) provides significant economic benefits even to neighboring farmers who grow non-transgenic varieties of corn.
"Modern agricultural science is playing a critical role in addressing many of the toughest issues facing American agriculture today, including pest management and productivity," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "This study provides important information about the benefits of biotechnology by directly examining how area-wide suppression of corn borers using Bt corn can improve yield and grain quality even of non-Bt varieties."
The researchers estimate that farmers in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin received cumulative economic benefits of nearly $7 billion between 1996-2009, with benefits of more than $4 billion for non-Bt corn farmers alone. The scientists estimated that in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin, borer populations in adjacent non-Bt fields declined by 28 to 73 percent, with similar reductions recorded in Iowa and Nebraska.
The researchers attribute the collateral benefits enjoyed by non-Bt farmers to areawide suppression of corn borers stemming from long-term plantings of Bt-protected crops. Potato, green bean and other host crops also stand to benefit from areawide reductions of corn borers, the researchers note. The team's Science report also highlights the importance of the use of refuge crops—the planting of non-Bt crops adjacent to fields of Bt crops, providing a refuge to which the pests can retreat—and other strategies to slow the corn borer's ability to develop resistance to Bt and thus maintain the insecticidal proteins' long-term effectiveness.
The Bt proteins provide the plant with a built-in defense against attacks by the larvae of European corn borers and other insect pests. Larvae that ingest the protein soon stop feeding and die, typically within 48 hours. In addition to reducing the use of insecticides that also can endanger beneficial insects, the Bt defense strategy helps prevent harmful molds from gaining entry to the plants via wound sites from borer feeding. Some of these molds, like Fusarium, produce mycotoxins that can diminish the value and safety of the crop's kernels.
Bt corn debuted in 1996, and by 2009 was planted on nearly 55 million acres in the United States, accounting for nearly 63 percent of the total U.S. corn crop of 87 million acres. But no research groups had previously investigated the long-term impact of such plantings on corn borer populations on a regional scale, nor had there been any assessment of whether the use of the crop provided any sort of collateral benefit to adjacent or nearby fields of non-Bt crops.
The team was led by William Hutchison of the University of Minnesota and included Rick Hellmich, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) entomologist at the Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit operated at Ames, Iowa, by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. The team gathered 14 years' worth of corn borer population data from Bt corn plantings and combined it with national corn production figures, including yields, prices and acreage planted.
In addition to ARS and the University of Minnesota, study participants included researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Pennsylvania State University at State College, the University of Illinois at Urbana, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Iowa State University at Nashua, and industry researchers, among others.
Transgenic corn suppresses European corn borer, saves farmers billions
07.oct.10
University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Jennifer Shike
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/uoic-tcs100710.php
Transgenic corn's suppression of the European corn borer has saved Midwest farmers billions of dollars in the past decade, reports a new study in Science.
Research conducted by several Midwest universities shows that suppression of this pest has saved $3.2 billion for corn growers in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin over the past 14 years with more than $2.4 billion of this total benefiting non-Bt corn growers. Comparable estimates for Iowa and Nebraska are $3.6 billion in total, with $1.9 billion accruing for non-Bt corn growers.
Transgenic corn is engineered to express insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt corn has become widely adopted in U.S. agriculture since its commercialization in 1996. In 2009, Bt corn constituted 63 percent of the U.S. crop.
Corn borer moths can't distinguish between Bt and non-Bt corn, so females lay eggs in both types of fields. Once eggs hatch in Bt corn, young borer larvae feed and die within 24 to 48 hours.
The major benefit of planting Bt corn is reduced yield losses, and Bt acres received this benefit after the growers paid Bt corn technology fees. But as a result of areawide pest suppression, non-Bt acres also experienced yield savings without the cost of Bt technology fees, and thus received more than half of the benefits from growing Bt corn in the region.
"We've assumed for some time that economic benefits were accruing, even among producers who opted not to plant Bt hybrids," said co-author of the study Mike Gray, University of Illinois Extension entomologist and professor in the Department of Crop Sciences. "However, once quantified, the magnitude of this benefit was even more impressive."
Over the past several years, entomologists and corn producers have noticed very low densities of European corn borers in Illinois. In fact, Illinois densities have reached historic lows to the point where many are questioning its pest status, Gray said.
"Since the introduction of Bt corn, initially targeted primarily at the European corn borer, many entomologists and ecologists have wondered if population suppression over a large area would eventually occur," Gray said. "As this research shows, areawide suppression has occurred and dramatically reduced the estimated $1 billion in annual losses caused previously by the European corn borer."
This information also provides incentives for growers to plant non-Bt corn in addition to Bt corn.
"Sustained economic and environmental benefits of this technology will depend on continued stewardship by producers to maintain non-Bt maize refuges to minimize the risk of evolution of Bt resistance in crop pest species," Gray said.
This study titled, "Areawide Suppression of European Corn Borer with Bt Maize Reaps Savings to Non-Bt Maize Growers," will appear in the October 8 edition of Science. The lead researcher is Bill Hutchison of the University of Minnesota. Collaborating authors include Eric Burkness and Roger Moon of the University of Minnesota, Paul Mitchell of the University of Wisconsin, Tim Leslie of Long Island University, Shelby Fleischer of Pennsylvania State University, Mark Abrahamson of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Krista Hamilton of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Kevin Steffey and Mike Gray of the University of Illinois, Rick Hellmich of USDA-ARS, Von Kaster of Syngenta Seeds Inc., Tom Hunt and Bob Wright of the University of Nebraska, Ken Pecinovsky of Iowa State University, Tom Rabaey of General Mills Inc., Brian Flood of Del Monte Foods and the late Earl Raun of Pest Management Company.
In WISCONSIN, 75 percent of economic benefit of Bt corn goes to farmers who don't plant it
07.oct.10
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Paul Mitchell
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/uow-iw7100610.php
MADISON -- Widespread planting of genetically modified Bt corn throughout the Upper Midwest has suppressed populations of the European corn borer, a major insect pest of corn, with the majority of the economic benefits going to growers who do not plant Bt corn, reports a multistate team of scientists in the Oct. 8 edition of the journal Science.
In Wisconsin, 75 percent of the $325 million cumulative economic benefit linked to Bt corn's pest suppression between 1996-2009 went to non-Bt corn growers. Wisconsin currently has about 3.9 million corn acres, with approximately half in Bt corn.
"This study is the first to estimate the value of area-wide pest suppression from transgenic crops and the subsequent benefit to growers of non-transgenic crops. In this case, the value of the indirect yield benefits for non-Bt corn acres exceeded the net value of direct benefits to Bt corn acres," says co-author Paul Mitchell, a University of Wisconsin-Madison agricultural economist who conducted the economic analysis for the study.
Bt corn is genetically modified (GM) to contain a protein from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that kills insect pests. According to the team's calculations, the total economic benefit of Bt corn's pest suppression across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska between 1996-2009 adds up to about $6.9 billion. When the team broke the numbers out by Bt and non-Bt fields, they were initially surprised to find that 62 percent of Bt corn's economic benefit — about $4.3 billion — went to non-Bt corn fields.
On second thought, however, the finding made sense. The primary benefit of Bt corn comes in the form of reduced yield losses, a benefit that Bt corn growers pay for in the form of Bt technology fees. As a result of Bt corn's area-wide pest suppression, however, growers who plant non-Bt corn in their fields also experience yield savings without the cost of Bt technology fees, and thus receive more than half of the benefits from growing Bt corn in the region.
European corn borer moths cannot distinguish between Bt and non-Bt corn, so females lay eggs in both kinds of fields, explains University of Minnesota entomologist William Hutchison, the study's chief author. Once eggs hatch in Bt corn, young borer larvae feed and die within 24 to 48 hours.
Because it is effective at controlling corn borers and other pests, Bt corn has been adopted on about 63 percent of all U.S. corn acres. As a result, corn borer numbers have also declined in neighboring non-Bt fields by 28 percent to 73 percent in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin, depending on historical pest abundance and the level of Bt-corn adoption. The study also documents similar declines of the pest in Iowa and Nebraska. This is the first study to show a direct association between Bt corn use and an area-wide reduction in corn borer abundance.
The authors note that their analysis does not consider benefits for other important Midwestern crops affected by European corn borer, such as sweet corn, potatoes and green beans. "Additionally, environmental benefits from corn borer suppression are likely occurring, such as less insecticide use, but these benefits have yet to be documented," says Hutchinson.
The authors were able to document the suppression of European corn borer in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin because state entomologists have monitored pest populations for more than 45 years in those states. Pest suppression and similar benefits to adopters and non-adopters alike may be occurring as a result of the widespread use of transgenic insect-resistant crops in other parts of the U.S. and the world, but those benefits cannot be documented without adequate data.
Finally, the authors emphasize that sustaining the economic and environmental benefits of Bt corn and other transgenic crops for adopters and non-adopters alike depends on the continued stewardship of these technologies. Farmers, industry and regulators need to remain committed to planting non-Bt corn refuges to minimize the risk that corn borers will develop resistance to Bt corn. The Science study shows that Bt corn is more valuable to society than originally realized, which makes maintaining its effectiveness even more important.
bites is produced by Dr. Douglas Powell and food safety friends at Kansas State University. For further information, please contact dpowell@ksu.edu or check out bites.ksu.edu.
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