Italian field trial results showing GM advantages suppressed

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate distribution

November 13, 2007

Media contacts: Piero Morandini, Roberto Defez (1)

Italian field trial results suppressed

Data are relevant to human and animal health

November 13, 2007 - Milan, Italy and Tuskegee, Alabama - via AgBioView, http://www.agbioworld.org

Data from field trials conducted in Italy which compared conventional maize (corn) with engineered (GM) maize have been suppressed for two years by government officials. The data, which are highly relevant to public health, are striking and significant.

The trials were conducted in Lombardy, a major maize-growing region in the northern part of Italy, and compared two conventional maize varieties with two similar varieties which had been genetically engineered to produce the Bt proteins which protect the crop from European corn borers.

The engineered Bt maize varieties, P67 and Elgina, are similar to those grown commercially on 20 million hectares in many countries, including some member states of the European Community. They were planted in 2005 in Landriano at a farm owned by the University of Milan along with their non-engineered counterparts, P66 and Cecilia. Comparing the grain yield data demonstrated spectacular results.

The conventional varieties produced between 11 and 11.1 tons of grain per hectare, while the engineered varieties yielded between 14.1 and 15.9 tons per hectare. This translates into a yield increase of between 28 and 43 percent with the engineered varieties.

Italian farmers are not allowed to grow self-protecting Bt maize. Taking into account the total area of conventional maize cultivation in Italy, the yield differences, maize prices and pest pressures, the data show that Italian farmers have forfeited between roughly 300 million and 1 billion Euros a year because of the continuing prohibition.

These data were released in 2006 by the National Institute for Research on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), a research institution funded and run by the government, though with no emphasis. The data were never formally published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the report page has been moved to secondary pages on the INRAN server. (2)

Until now, other data from those field trials have been kept completely quiet. From the perspective of public health, they are far more important.

The field trials in question were actually designed to determine if crops enhanced to resist insect pests have an effect on the fumonisin content of the grain they produce. Fumonisins are toxins produced by fungi which can infect a growing maize plant. These toxins are dangerous to humans and animals; in humans there is evidence that they cause spina bifida, a highly disabling developmental defect occurring during early stages of pregnancy. Affected children usually cannot walk and they suffer kidney and urinary problems. Often, this is accompanied by brain damage. In horses and pigs, fumonisins cause other kind of illnesses.

The fungi infect a growing maize plant by entering the plant through a wound. Since European corn borers inflict significant wounds on growing maize plants, they leave these plants open to infection. During the field trials in Lombardy, no corn borer larvae were found on the engineered Bt varieties. At the same time, an average of 29 of these parasitic pests were found on each stalk of the conventional varieties--with more than one-third of them in the cobs.

The extensive infection of the conventional plants resulted in a dramatic increase in fumonisin levels, while the engineered varieties had between 100 and 130 times lower levels of the toxins.

It is unfortunate that so little attention was paid to the financial significance of the findings. It is another matter entirely to cover up data with obvious implications for public health, and it is up to the government to explain why the data on these toxins were kept under wraps.

The data were generated in the public sector with taxpayers' money, and they were produced by the University of Milan, a reputable public body. It is unquestionable that the information belongs to the Italian public. The relevance to human and animal health everywhere cannot be denied.

The data should be submitted as quickly as possible for publication in a reputable journal, so that the scientific community is informed. It is immediately crucial, however, that they be made widely available so that consumers and farmers can clearly understand the financial and medical issues at stake. This is made far more urgent because of the misinformation and lies being being spread by the 'Free from GMOs' ('Liberi da OGM') campaign, a large coalition of lobby groups which is trying to impose a permanent ban on the cultivation of GM crops in Italy.

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(1) Media contacts:
Piero Morandini
Department of Biology "L. Gorini"
University of Milan
via Celoria 26
20133 Milan, Italy
Tel: +39-02-5031-4816
Fax: +39-02-5031-4815
piero.morandini@unimi.it
Roberto Defez
Istituto di Genetica e Biofisica "A. Buzzati Traverso", CNR
Via Pietro Castellino 111
80131 Napoli, Italy
Tel: 0039 081 6132440
Fax: 0039 081 6132706
defez@igb.cnr.it
http://www.salmone.org/
(2) http://www.inran.it/inran/rapporti_con_il_mipaf/progetti_strategici/OGM%20in%20Agricoltura%20prodotti.pdf

See also

• Previous GMO Pundit post on a scientific review of the Mycotoxin topic
• Food fight over fumonisins features at FooodNavigator.com