smh.com.au - Great jumping genes: study jolts assurances on GM crops
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Great jumping genes: study jolts assurances on GM crops
Date: 29/05/2000
London: Research by a leading German zoologist has shown that genes used to genetically modify crops can jump the species barrier, newspapers reported yesterday.
A three-year study by Professor Hans-Heinrich Kaatz at the University of Jena found that the gene used to modify oil-seed rape had transferred to bacteria living inside honey bees.
The findings will undermine claims by the biotech industry and supporters of genetically modified foods that genes cannot spread. They will also increase pressure on farmers across Europe to destroy fields of oil-seed rape contaminated with GM seeds.
In an interview for Britain's The Observer, Professor Kaatz said: "I have found the herbicide-resistant genes in the rape seed transferred across to the bacteria and yeast inside the intestines of young bees. This happened rarely, but it did happen."
Asked if his findings had implications for the bacteria inside the human gut, he replied: "Maybe, but I am not an expert on this."
The Observer said Professor Kaatz was reluctant to talk about his work until it was officially published and reviewed by fellow scientists.
The reports come a day after Britain's Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown, urged farmers to destroy crops contaminated with GM seeds. Up to 600 farmers in Britain are believed to have inadvertently planted more than 12,000 hectares of oil-seed rape believed to be contaminated with GM rape seeds, supplied by the Anglo-Dutch seed company Advanta.
Similar crops have been planted elsewhere in Europe. The French and Swedish governments have already announced they are ordering the uprooting of the crops.
Agence France-Presse
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