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BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
CHICAGO - (KRT) - Alarmed by new research showing that pollen from genetically modified grass can spread for miles, federal regulators are questioning the environmental safety of moving biotechnology into golf courses and suburban lawns.
Plans to commercialize creeping bentgrass engineered to resist Roundup herbicide are on hold after the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to make it the first genetically modified plant to undergo an environmental-impact statement, a rigorous study that will take at least a year to complete.
Department officials are expected to officially announce the study this month. Their main concern is whether pollen from the biotech grass can spread to wild relatives and create herbicide-resistant "superweeds" that are more difficult to control.
"There are enough questions out there that we decided to take a closer look," said Meghan Thomas, an Agriculture Department spokeswoman.
The delay is a setback for Scotts Co., a Marysville, Ohio, lawn and garden company that has invested millions of dollars on its foray into biotechnology.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Corporate researchers working outside controversial federal restraints said on Thursday they had engineered human stem cells that they believe could be used to repair eyes.
The team at Advanced Cell Technology in Massachusetts worked with stem cells taken from human embryos made by a team at Harvard University, and coaxed them to form retinal cells.
"This is the first derivation of retinal cells from human embryonic stem cells," said Dr. Robert Lanza, Advanced Cell Technology's scientific director.
"We believe these new retinal cells could be used to treat blindness and may, in fact, be the one of the very first applications of embryonic stem-cell technology."
The cells clustered into small globes on their own.
"They looked like little eyeballs," Lanza said in a telephone interview. "These things seem to be trying to assemble into primitive eyes."
The only cells they could clearly define were retinal cells, but Lanza said some also resembled the cells that make rods and cones -- the light receptors of the eyes.
The retina is the coating on the back of the eye that receives a visual image and transmits it to the optic nerve.
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Conference attendees said wrangling over the Iowa Values Fund was disappointing.
By ANNE FITZGERALD
REGISTER AGRIBUSINESS WRITER
Researchers have just begun to apply genomic discoveries to agriculture, and developing new uses for crops and livestock will require major investment, industry experts said Thursday. The 1990s was a decade of breakthroughs in genomics, said Alex Hromockyj , director of genomics research at Pfizer Inc. in St. Louis.
"But I would argue that it's just the beginning," said Hromockyj , who spoke Thursday at the annual convention of the Iowa Biotechnology Association. "We've only scratched the surface."
Stephen Howell, director of the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University, said agriculture is "about 20 years behind" in using biotechnology to find new uses for conventional commodities.
The emerging industry - a focal point for Iowa's economic development efforts - faces numerous obstacles, but the biggest barrier is a lack of adequate funding, said Howell, also a speaker at the biotech gathering held Thursday at the West Des Moines Marriott Hotel.
An estimated $80 million is needed to develop a new transgenic crop, for instance. Howell called that "a shockingly high number," although it is about one-tenth of the amount needed to develop and commercialize a new pharmaceutical product.
If Iowa is to capitalize on its rich agricultural base, state lawmakers must dedicate more money to the effort, attendees said.
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By Hilary Burke
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Monsanto Co. (MON), a company that has pioneered the development of bioengineered crops, is pushing hard to recover millions of dollars in lost revenue in three South American countries where farmers have sown its wonder seeds without paying royalties.
But, despite a determined lobbying drive in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay -- the three top soybean exporters after the United States -- these nations are unlikely to act quickly enough to satisfy the St. Louis-based agricultural giant, which would like reforms in place now, with the 2004/2005 planting season just beginning.
A bill that could legalize biotech crops in Brazil, one of the only remaining holdouts among major soy-producing countries, has stalled in Congress, delaying the day when Monsanto could counter widespread sales of its seeds on the black market.
In Argentina, the government won't finalize a royalties fund proposal until December -- and then the bill will go to Congress. Meanwhile, in neighboring Paraguay, peasant protests may delay an accord on such fees in that country.
"This is definitely a region of particular interest to the company, because that is where soybean production is growing the fastest," said Todd Duvick, a food analyst at Banc of America Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As soy production has surged in South America, particularly in Brazil, U.S. farmers paying stiff technology fees to Monsanto have decried the competitive advantage enjoyed by Latin American farmers using pirated Roundup Ready seeds, which will produce soy plants resistant to Monsanto's Roundup Ready herbicide.
"We believe it is reasonable that he who uses a technology and gains benefits by using it, also pays for it," Monsanto spokeswoman Lori Fisher told Reuters.
"Both Argentina and Brazil are important to worldwide agriculture and to any company who wishes to be compensated for the innovations they are bringing to agriculture," Fisher said.
For years farmers in Brazil and Paraguay -- where genetically modified crops are illegal -- have planted pirated Roundup Ready soy seeds.
Roundup Ready soy, engineered to withstand the effects of Monsanto's glyphosate-based herbicide, is popular with farmers because it makes soy cultivation cheaper and easier.
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--ERIK STOKSTAD
Scientists have for the first time genetically modified plants to contain a particularly healthy kind of fatty acid in their seeds. The most beneficial of so-called omega-3 fatty acids are found only in fish, so growing omega-3-rich transgenic plants instead could increase public consumption while relieving pressure on fisheries, researchers say.
The oil and fat in food consist of fatty acids, which are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms. The most healthy variety, polyunsaturated fatty acids, have two or more double bonds between the carbon atoms. Among these, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids--for example, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)--confer the greatest benefit, lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease and other ills.
Fish are a good source of DHA and EPA. Plants don't contain either, but precursors of these fatty acids are fairly abundant in flaxseed, canola oil, soybeans, and walnuts. The human body can synthesize DHA from these precursors, although not efficiently. Because most people don't eat enough fish to get the recommended amount of EPA, and because fisheries are already in decline, researchers have been trying to engineer plants with enzymes to make EPA. In June, a group reported success with the model plant Arabidopsis; by adding three genes, researchers led by Baoxiu Qi of the University of Bath, U.K., created plants in which EPA made up 20% of the plant’s oils.
Now, another group led by botanist Ernst Heinz of the University of Hamburg, Germany, has done the same in flax. This plant was a logical starting place, because its seeds have the highest levels of omega-3 precursors. Heinz, biochemist Amine Abbadi, and colleagues added a different trio of genes than Qi's team used. The genes introduced by the German group encode enzymes that add carbon double bonds to the precursors and tack on additional carbon atoms, creating a range of omega-3 and other fatty acids.
Omega-3 and omega-6 made up 3.6% of the fatty acids in the transgenic seeds, the team reports in the October issue of The Plant Cell. Although this is still less than a tenth of what's found in fish oil, Heinz says that a spoonful of transgenic linseed oil (made from crushed flaxseed) would provide most of what's recommended for good health. The team has also figured out which step in the reactions is limiting the amount of omega-3 and omega-6 and is working to improve the yield.
"It's a good step forward," Qi says, although she notes that the EPA in the seeds is scanty. Boosting that level probably won't be a major hurdle, notes Alan McHughen of the University of California, Riverside, who has worked on transgenic linseed. The bigger challenge, he and Heinz both say, will be winning public acceptance, especially in Europe. But because this transgenic crop would provide a health benefit for consumers, plus an environmental benefit, they and Qi are hopeful.
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Health authorities across the country meet today to discuss stepping up measures against the bird flu, in the wake of possible signs of human-to-human transmission of the lethal virus.
Lab results determining whether or not human-to-human transmission has occurred are expected to be released either today or tomorrow.
All hospitals will be ordered to go on full alert and question every patient with either a high fever or respiratory symptoms if they have been in contact with dying or sick poultry, said Dr Charal Trinwuthipong, acting permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry.
Patients who have had contact with sick poultry, Charal said, would be administered a throat swab as an initial test for the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu before being transferred to Bangkok for further testing.
In the past, only hospitals in bird flu hotspots implemented such stringent patient screening.
Around 20,000 health volunteers living in villages across the country will be cooperating with local livestock authorities to report unusual deaths among chickens or migrating fowl, as well as to educate people regarding proper disposal of carcasses and disinfecting contaminated areas.
Previous responses to bird flu outbreaks may have suffered from an insufficient workforce, so the health volunteers should facilitate efforts, Charal said.
He said that preliminary test kits for the bird flu and appropriate medications are available at every hospital nationwide.
Agence France-Presse quoted the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) acting Thailand representative, Kamara Rai, as saying on Saturday that the WHO suspected human-to-human transmission of the virus affecting five people in the northern province of Kamphaeng Phet.
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BANGKOK - Thai officials say there's no indication that a woman recently diagnosed with bird flu caught it from another person.
The Thai health ministry confirmed on Monday that a 32-year-old woman known as Prenom had the deadly H5N1 virus.
Prenom's sister and 11-year-old niece both died earlier this month. Both were suspected of having bird flu. Officials were continuing tests to determine the cause of their deaths.
Prenom and the girl were known to have been in contact with chickens. Officials were investigating the possibility the girl's mother had been infected with the virus while looking after her sick daughter.
At least nine people in Thailand since July. Another eight died earlier this year. The virus has killed 19 in Vietnam this year.
Health experts are worried that the avian virus could combine with a human influenza virus to create a new version that could spread quickly among people and possibly lead to a global pandemic.
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All human bird flu cases so far have been caused by animals
Thailand has confirmed a case of human bird flu which has sparked fears of possible human to human transmission.
The victim's sister and niece died from suspected bird flu earlier this month.
But the Thai government said the 32-year-old woman had been in contact with dead birds, and there was no evidence she caught the disease from relatives.
At least nine people have died from bird flu in Thailand so far this year, but all are thought to have contracted the disease from poultry.
A case of human to human transmission would raise fears that the bird flu virus could combine with a human flu virus, to create a more deadly version of the disease.
The latest victim, named as Pranom Thongchan, is the second confirmed case since the latest outbreak began in July. She is reported to be recovering in hospital.
The woman's sister and 11-year-old niece both died earlier this month from severe pneumonia, and are listed as suspected bird flu cases. Test results are yet to be completed.
Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said there was nothing to suggest the dead woman had contracted the disease from other humans.
"She had been in contact with dead chickens, together with her niece who died earlier," the minister said.
Charal Trinvuthipong, director general of the country's disease control department, said human to human transmission was only "an assumption".
"We do not have evidence to prove there is a transmission between humans," he said.
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