THE US Environmental Protection Agency has withheld approval for an experiment to test how useful a genetically engineered virus would be as a 鈥渂iopesticide鈥�. American Cyanamid of New Jersey has inserted a gene into the virus that enables it to produce a scorpion toxin lethal to caterpillar pests.
Experiments conducted in Britain with similar viruses have caused considerable controversy (see This Week, this issue). American Cyanamid wants to release its own version of the 鈥渟corpion gene virus鈥� at unspecified locations in Florida and Texas.
鈥淲e have some ecological concerns about the virus escaping, and one of our main worries was what effect it would have on non-target organisms,鈥� says Linda Hollis of the EPA鈥檚 Office of Pesticide Programs. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to happen until Cyanamid provides the agency with a little more data.
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