Dossier: Syngentas unaproved GM maize
variety "bt10" distributed world wide since 2001
Last updated January 2007
Basic
documents
Chronology:
On Tuesday 22nd of March 2005 Sarah Hull, a spokeswoman for
the international agrochemical and GMO company Syngenta
announced that farmers in four U.S. states planted 37,000 acres (15.000 ha)
with the experimental Bt10 corn variety from 2001 through 2004. She refused
to say which four states."All current plantings and seed stock have been
identified and either destroyed or isolated for future destruction," Syngenta
said in a prepared statement. While most of the corn produced from the Bt10
seeds, engineered to act as a pesticide, likely went into animal feed, some
of it may have entered the human food supply, Hull said. She also said the Bt10
corn could have been exported to countries that have approved the Bt11 variety.
That list includes Canada, Argentina, Japan, South Africa, Uruguay, the European
Union, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, the Philippines, China,
Russia, and South Korea. Jeff Stein, Syngenta's director of regulatory affairs
for North America, said the primary difference between Bt10 and Bt11 is that
the same DNA was inserted into different portions of the plant's genome, but
the proteins created by the process remained identical.
On Thursday 24 March the EU Commission
the European Commission announced that it had only been informed about the problem
by Syngenta and US authorities on the 23rd of March.
Japanese and South Korean authorities announced they would require testing for
"bt10" in US maize imports.
On Thursday 31March Syngenta admitted that "bt10" also contained an antibiotic resistance gene (ampicillin) but claims it was not active in the construct. It was also admitted that bt10 was shipped to the EU as well as provided for planting experiments in Spain and France.
On Thursday 31 March Genetic ID, a private testing company offered a PCR detection method specific for "bt10".
On Friday 1 April the EU Commission issued a press release and "deplored" the accident asking for full information in letters to Syngenta and the US embassy.
On Monday 4 April the Commission announced it had no means to test for the presence of bt10 in maize feed and food as Syngenta had not provided a test so far.
On Friday 8 April Syngenta annouces it has settled with the US Department of Agriculture to pay a 375.000 $ fine over the scandal.
On Tuesday 12 April the EU member states Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health discussed the issue in Brussels. The representatives concluded that there was no imminent health threat associated with bt10. They also endorsed a Commission proposal to require laboratory certification for maize imports from the US to be free of bt10.
On Friday 15 April the EU member states voted in favour of a Commission proposal to adopt an emergency measure requiring imports of corn gluten feed and brewers grain from the United States of America to be certified as free of the unauthorised GMO Bt10, as these are the imported products considered most likely to be contaminated. Syngenta welcomes the decision and commissions a test to the testing company "GeneScan", which is to be applied from April 18 on outgoing cargos from the US.
On Thursday 21 April the Commission decision to require independent certification of US corn gluten feed and brewers grains not to contain bt10 is published in the Official Journal.
On Wednesday 27 April the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Food and Drug administration for the first time publish statements of their risk assessment of Bt10. The assessments do not include any event specific considerations but simply state that the expressed protein of bt10 and bt11 was the same.
On Wednesday 11 May Syngenta informs NGO representatives about the case but insists that the full sequence of bt10 would not be made public and reference material for testing will be exclusively provided only to a single laboratory, GeneScan, under the companies contract.
On Wednesday 25 May a first US shipment of maize feed contaminated with bt10 is impounded by Irish authorities
On Wednesday 1 June the Japanese govenment announces all maize cargos from the US will be tested for bt10 after a shipment was found to be contaminated with bt10 on May 26th.
On Wednesday 8 June Syngenta announces it will seek USDA official approval for bt10 to reassure the Japanese government after further shipments are refused by Japanese authorities
On Thursday 9 June, the European Food Safety Agency, EFSA, issues a follow up statement that no safety evaluation of bt 10 can be conducted as there are no sufficient data from Syngenta. However, i f the information provided by Syngenta was correct, the may be no safety concerns about inadvertent contamination.
On Friday 10 June, 4,170 tons of imported Feed corn from the US was tested as Bt10 positive at the Shibushi port, after its discovery in Nagoya port and Tomakomai port.
On Wednesday 15 June, the MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) proposed, as a provisional measure, allowing U.S. corn mixed with genetically modified Bt10 to be imported to Japan if the content of the unapproved corn variety is one pct or less.
On Thursday 23 June, the MAFF released an information on the third case of Bt10 contamination, which was discovered in Shibushi port, Kagoshima Prefecture (on Kyusyu island).
On Thursday 4 August, a MAFF press release states that there have been 7 shipments from the US tested as unapproved GMO Bt10 detected positive. So far 20,812 ton detected at the customs inspection (before importing them into Japan) in 6 different ports across Japan.
On Monday 22 August, Japan's Agriculture
Ministry said it discovered a ninth U.S. feed grain cargo tainted with Bt-10
biotech corn, and has told the importer to destroy it or ship it back to the
United States.
On Thursday 25 August, Ten shipments and 32,610 tons of tainted
corn quarantined in Japan
On Tuesday 16 January 2007 the European Commission lifted the extra controls of US for bt10 in imports of maize from the USA
US
Environmental Protection Ageny 21 December 2006: EPA Fines Syngenta
$1.5 Million for Distributing Unregistered Genetically Engineered Pesticide
EU
Press Release 4 April 2006: Commission requests information from
Syngenta to confirm reliability of detection method for Bt10 maize
Syngenta
3 February 2006: Bt10 Report on Maize Gluten Feed
EU
Committee on the Food Chain 2005: Bt10: Review of Decision 2005/317/EC
on emergency measures regarding the non-authorised genetically modified organism
Bt10 in maize products.
APHIS
Biotechnology Regulatory Services Compliance Investigation 2005:
Syngenta Seeds Inc.
UK's
Food Standards Authority 2005: Documents Relating to the GM Bt10
maize contamination incident 2005 released by GM Freeze
GM
Contamination Report 2005: by Genewatch UK and Greenpeace - A review of
cases of contamination, illegal planting and negative side effects of genetically
modified organisms
Nature, 22 March: US launches probe into sales of
unapproved transgenic corn , Syngenta admits 150 square kilometres
accidentally sown with wrong seeds.
Syngenta:
press statement 21.03.2004 "During advanced
testing, Syngenta recently discovered an unintended event, Bt10, in a small
number of its corn breeding lines used primarily for pre-commercial development."
Nature
31 March: Stray seeds had antibiotic-resistance
genes
Syngenta
8 April: Syngenta agrees settlement with USDA
on unintended Bt10 corn
Nature
14 April: Don't rely on Uncle Sam
"European regulators should pursue their own
investigation into how the 'wrong' genetically modified corn was allowed on
the market for years. Unfortunately, their US equivalents show
little sign of rising to the challenge."
EU
Commission 15 April: Commission requires certification
of US exports to stop unauthorised GMO entering the EU
Syngenta,
15 April: Syngenta supports EU in targeted certification program
for two animal feed maize products
EU
Commission 21 April: Decision on emergency
measures regarding the non authorised genetically modified organism Bt10 in
maize products
(for all EU languages go to Official
Journal L 101 and chose your language, see item 2005/317/EC)
US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
27 April:
Statement on Bt 10
US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 27 April: Statement
on Bt 10
Sygentas Bt10 documents collection ongoing