Scientists question safety of GM maize risk test

"It's astonishing that this study has not been assessed and found
wanting by the government, and that it's been left to Friends of the
Earth to have it properly reviewed." said Dr Kestin.

The Guardian
John Vidal
Saturday November 4, 2000

The safety of the maize which the government
hopes will be Britain's first commercially grown
GM crop was last night in question after
independent scientists checked corporate research
and found that the animal food had a "suspicious"
trend of killing chickens.

Steve Kestin and Toby Knowles, who have worked
on chicken studies for the Ministry of
Agriculture, were commissioned by Friends of the
Earth to review a study by Aventis, the giant GM
company, supporting its case to grow the maize in
Britain.

The scientists, from the University of Bristol's
department of clinical veterinary science, told a
government hearing yesterday that they had found
"a failure to investigate suspicious trends" in the
death of chickens.

Ten male broiler birds out of 140 (7.14%) who
were fed the GM maize in a small trial died
compared to five (3.57%) who died after eating
conventional maize.

This, they said, suggested "either a fault in the
study or a real direct effect of diet and should act
as a spur for further investigation".

The Aventis study stated that the level of deaths
was "normal for this fast growing strain of bird"
and gave a normal mortality rate in broiler
chickens of this age at "between 5 and 8%".

But a source in the British poultry industry said
yesterday this range of deaths was abnormal
-"4% is the average. Anything over 5% and you
have got a problem".

The Bristol scientists also questioned the methods
and conclusions of the Aventis study.

They said that the nutrition tests done by the
company on the maize were "inadequate" and "not
of a standard that would be acceptable for
publication in a scientific journal".

They further found the studies had not been
repeated sufficiently to be of scientific validity.
Only four repeats were used, as opposed to the
minimum of 14 which they recommended.

Using such a small number of tests, they said,
would be "one of the best methods _to show no
 effect". They also noted other flaws in the design
 of the Aventis study.

"It's astonishing that this study has not been
assessed and found wanting by the government,
and that it's been left to Friends of the Earth to
have it properly reviewed." said Dr Kestin.

During the hearing experts have already
questioned Aventis's scientific evidence for the
marketing of the GM forage maize.

In particular, they have expressed concern over
the failure to test the GM maize on cows for which
the maize is intended. Aventis has refused to
produce evidence at the hearing.

Earlier this week, the Ministry of Agriculture
said that the official tests on the Chardon LL crop,
carried out by the French authorities, had only
been conducted for one year rather than the two
required under EU law.

Yesterday's revelations were a further blow to the
government's GM policy.

In April, it announced its intention to allow
Chardon LL - which has been genetically modified
to be resistant to Aventis' own herbicide - to be
put on to the national seed list, the final legal
barrier before the seed can be sold to farmers.

But a loophole in the law found by Friends of the
Earth allowed the public the right to an appeal
against the decision.

A spokesman for Aventis last night said: "We are
confident that Chardon LL is a variety eligible for
entry on to the national list, having already
complied with all of the prescribed relevant
regulatory procedures."