Monarch Caterpillars

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From P A N U P S, Pesticide Action Network Updates Service:

Bt-Corn Pollen from Iowa Fields Kills Monarch Caterpillars

October 10, 2000

In August, Iowa State University scientists reported in the journal Oecologia that one kind of Bt-corn pollen naturally deposited on milkweeds in and near corn fields kills monarch butterfly caterpillars. This research confirms a laboratory study published in Nature last summer which showed that Bt-corn pollen is lethal to monarchs. The Iowa scientists conducted three kinds of studies using two types of Bt corn marketed by Novartis Seeds: KnockOut, which contains a Bt gene named Event 176 and YieldGard with a Bt gene called Bt 11. KnockOut pollen typically contains more Bt toxin than YieldGard pollen. The three experiments were: * To learn how much pollen caterpillars might be exposed to under field conditions, researchers counted pollen that fell on milkweeds, the favorite food of monarch caterpillars, within and near KnockOut, YieldGard and nonBt-corn plots.

Contact: Union of Concerned Scientists. 1707 H Street NW, Suite 600, Washington DC 20006-3919; phone 202-223-6133; fax 202-223-6162; http://www.ucsusa.org/agriculture/index.html

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting on pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the mainstream media. It's produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide. You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work and all contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit our extensive web site at http://www.panna.org to learn more about getting involved.

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Action Alert: Parathion Kills Birds

April 24, 2000

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) urges conservationists, scientists, bird watchers and the public to respond to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) request for comment on the ecological effects of ethyl parathion. Ethyl parathion, an organophosphate insecticide, is highly toxic to birds and has caused numerous wildlife mortality incidents. Bird die-offs have been documented in a wide range of species including waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors and songbirds. Also, even after extensive efforts to mitigate hazards to humans, ethyl parathion continues to raise significant safety concerns for farm workers.

You can read mor at : http://www.panna.org

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5/2000:

Wednesday, 10 May, 2000, 17:51 GMT 18:51 UK

Chernobyl's effects linger on Fish showed unexpectedly high caesium levels

By environment correspondent Alex Kirby

Levels of radioactivity from the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 remain unexpectedly high in some parts of northern Europe, researchers have found...

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From Coordination against BAYER- dangers: :

KEYCODE BAYER #22

KEYCODE BAYER is published byCBD (Coordination against BAYER-dangers, since 1983). CBD monitors the BAYER Corporation and coordinates activities against violations of human and environmental rights caused by this company.

American authorities ban antibiotic BAYTRIL for poultry

The Bayer Corporation is the third largest manufacturer of veterinary products in the world. Almost half of the European production of antibiotics land in cattle stalls - more than 10,000 metric tons a year. The result is an increased number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens in animals - a high risk for human health. Through the food chain strains resistant bacteria such as salmonella can enter the human body and trigger untreatable infections. Diseases such as tuberculosis, which appeared to have been cured by scientists years ago, are spreading once again.

Now the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to ban the use of two antibiotics used by poultry farmers. The removal would mark the first time the American government has pulled any drug to combat infections that have grown resistant to antibiotics. Public health organizations, including the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, have strongly advocated such a ban for years. But agriculture and pharmaceutical interests have successfully held them off until now.

Abbott Laboratories of North Chicago, Ill., maker of one of the drugs, will withdraw its antibiotic immediately, according to the FDA. But Bayer Corp. Animal Division, which dominates the market, said it will consider whether to request a hearing to contest the proposed ban.The antibiotics in question are in the class known as fluoroquinolones, which have been available for human use since 1986 and are commonly prescribed to treat serious gastrointestinal illness, including from the common campylobacter bacteria. The FDA action would not affect the availability of the drugs for humans.

The drugs were approved for chickens, turkeys and cattle in the mid-1990s, and since then the incidence of resistance to fluoroquinolones in people has increased dramatically. After years of testing and construction of an elaborate risk assessment, the FDA concluded earlier this year that the health of at least 5,000 Americans is affected each year by the use of these drugs in chickens.

These people eat animals that are carrying resistant campylobacter bacteria because the animals were treated with fluoroquinolones. If the bacteria make people sick and they seek treatment, fluoroquinolones will be far less effective than normal. This could be life-threatening to the elderly, to children and to people with depressed immune systems.

While the consequences of fluoroquinolone resistance may not be grave to most people, public health officials call it the tip of an iceberg of rising resistance to dozens of other life-saving antibiotics. Resistance develops when antibiotics are overused, both by doctors treating people and by farmers treating animals. An estimated 40 percent of the nation's antibiotic use is in livestock.

The FDA selected fluoroquinolones to study because they are so commonly used and because the agency was able to collect the necessary data to directly link the drugs' use in chickens with a specific problem in people. The FDA is reviewing the use of fluoroquinolones in cattle as part of a comprehensive examination of all agricultural antibiotic use.

Advocates of a more restrained use of antibiotics hailed the action. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said that the issue of antibiotic resistance has become increasingly important to scientists, regulators and the public. He said the Center for Veterinary Medicine, an arm of the FDA, has just been allocated $3 million to study the problem, the first appropriation of its kind. "This has never happened before, and it's quite exciting," said Fred Angulo, who follows antibiotic resistance for the CDC. "The agency recognizes there is a problem that has to be corrected, and consumers will be the beneficiaries."

"There was tremendous opposition to the use of fluoroquinolones when FDA first approved them for treating flocks of poultry, and I suppose you can say the chickens have now come home to roost," said Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer group. "This action will reduce the spread of bacteria that are not sensitive to a very powerful antibiotic, and that is good for public health."

In 1997, the World Health Organization recommended phasing out the use of antibiotics to promote the growth of livestock." Bayer recently spent over 50 million US$ to build new production facilities for Baytril in Germany and the US. The company claimed that Baytril is completely harmless in a letter to veterinarians: "Bayer has and always will play a leading role in defending fluoroquinolones".

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy from Minnesota/USA started an Action Alert. If you want to write an eMail to Bayer Corporation and urge them to withdraw Baytril please visit: http://www.iatp.org/iatp/ (take a look at Action Alert).

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