Scientists Warn of GM Crop Link to Meningitis

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Scientists Warn of GM Crops Link to Meningitis

 

Daily Mail (UK), 26 April 1999

 

THE nightmare possibility of GM food experiments producing untreatable killer

diseases has been underscored by senior Government scientists.

 

They fear new strains of meningitis and other infections could be created by

crops which may already be in the food chain.

 

Experts on the Government’s Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes have

issued a warning about plants being grown in the U.S. and parts of Europe which

contain a gene resistant to antibiotics.

 

They are concerned that, if workers breathe in dust as the crops are processed,

the resistance could be transferred to bacteria in their throats.

 

Around one in five people are carriers of the meningitis bacteria, even though

they are not affected by the disease. Microbiologist Dr John Heritage, a member

of the committee, has written to American authorities to express his worries.

‘It’s a huge concern to me,’ he said. ‘While the risk is small, the consequences

of an untreatable, life-threatening infection spreading within the population

are enormous.’ ...

 

The concerns about new strains of diseases centre on maize containing an

antibiotic-resistant gene called BLA, which can affect meningitis bacteria, and

cotton containing a gene called AAD, which can affect the sexually-transmitted

disease gonorrhea.

 

The BLA gene could make meningitis immune to penicillin - one of the normal

treatments - and possibly mutate further, making the killer disease resistant to

other cures.

 

The genes are added to the plants as a ‘marker’ to help biotech scientists

monitor how well they take up the modified genes they are given.

 

Breathing in dust from the crops is not the only potential transfer mechanism.

There are also fears that antibiotic resistance could ‘jump’ to bacteria in the

gut of an animal or person who ate the food.

 

Experts believed until recently that the genes break down too quickly for this

to happen. But a study by a Dutch team, reported in New Scientist magazine

earlier this year, suggested that DNA from food lingers in the large intestine

for several minutes. Strands of genetic code could have time to transfer from

food to bacteria, potentially passing on key characteristics.

 

In a report on Monsanto’s U.S. cotton crop, being used primarily for animal

feed, the Government advisory committee says: ‘The clinical consequences of such

an evolutionary step would be grave.’

 

 

 

 

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