Another View on Bt Proteins – How Specific are They and What Else Might
They Do?
<http://www.gmo-guidelines.info/public/publications/download/
HilbeckSchmidt06.pdf>
A. HILBECK* AND J.E.U. SCHMIDT
Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Biopestic. Int. 2 (1): 1-50 (2006)
ABSTRACT
The entomopathogenic bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and its toxins are extensively used for pest control purposes in agriculture, forestry and public health programmes since the 1930. In addition to spray formulations, transgenic plants containing Bt genes for the expression of the toxins (Bt plants) are commercially available since the mid 1990s and are grown on an increasing percentage of the global agricultural area.
A main reason for the importance of Bt as a pesticide is the assumed environmental safety concluded from the high specificity of its endotoxins (Cry proteins) towards a limited number of target organisms, mostly distinct groups of pest insects. While the mode of action of the Cry toxins in these susceptible target insects is well studied, Bt experts claim that several details are still not understood well enough.
Although there is considerable experience with the application and the environmental safety of Bt sprays, a number of research papers were published in the past that did report adverse effects on non-target organisms. These and the widespread use of transgenic Bt plants stimulated us to review the published laboratory feeding studies on effects of Bt toxins and transgenic Bt plants on non- target invertebrates.
We describe those reports that documented adverse effects in non-target organisms in more detail and focus on one prominent example, the green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea. Discussing our findings in the context of current molecular studies, we argue firstly that the evidence for adverse effects in non-target organisms is compelling enough that it would merit more research.
We further conclude from our in-depth analysis that the published reports studying the effects of Bt toxins from Bt pesticides and transgenic Bt plants on green lacewing larvae provide complementary and not contradictory data. And, finally, we find that the key experiments explaining the mode of action not only in this particular affected non-target species but also in most other affected non-target species are still missing.
Considering the steadily increasing global production area of Bt crops, it seems prudent to thoroughly understand how Bt toxins might affect non-target organisms.