India: Sheep ill/dying after grazing in cotton fields

[Niko]

This was sent to me by a friend and I thought it warranted attention.

Bt%20Cotton%20&%20Livestock%20effects_%20CSA%20meets%20farmers%20&%20officials%20in%20Adilabad%20dis


Older article from 2006:

GM: Mass Deaths in Sheep Grazing on Bt Cotton, notes Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="585"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="500">2006-05-04 | At least 1,800 sheep reported dead from severe toxicity after grazing on Bt cotton fields in just four villages in Andhra Pradesh India

The Bt trail of dead sheep, ill workers and dead villagers over three years

At least 1 820 sheep were reported dead after grazing on post-harvest Bt cotton crops; the symptoms and post-mortem findings strongly suggest they died from severe toxicity. This was uncovered in a preliminary investigation conducted by civil society organisations in just four villages in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh in India. The actual problem is likely to be much greater.

This latest report confirms the findings of an earlier fact-finding investigation, also conducted by civil society organisations, on illnesses in cotton farm workers and handlers caused by Bt cotton in another cotton-growing state, Madhya Pradesh, in India (?More illnesses linked to Bt crops?, this series).

And not so long ago, we reported similar illnesses and deaths among villagers in the Philippines linked to exposure to Bt maize since 2003 (?GM ban long overdue, dozens ill and five deaths in the Philippines?, SiS 29).

It cannot be mere coincidence that similar Bt toxins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis incorporated in the genetically modified crops are involved in all these cases; but the regulators have done nothing. Things are so bad that the European Commission levelled an accusation of bias towards the biotech industry against its own food safety regulatory body (?European Food Safety Authority criticised of GMO bias?, this series). </td></tr></tbody></table>
**Snipped**

http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=2308&blz=1

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: India: Sheep ill/dying after grazing in cotton fields

I just posted this in the honeybee thread....

The novel proteins or toxins produced by GM crops may also be in the pollen they produce. This means that honey containing GM pollen could pose a potential health risk. The researchers who studied this problem concluded that if GM pollen contained novel toxins or proteins it ?could pose problems, not only to man who consumes honey as a food, but also to bee populations which rely on pollen as the sole source of protein Researchers at Cornell University wrote a report about genetically modified corn plants and monarch butterflies. The corn was of a type that had been modified to produce an insecticide known as Bt toxin to protect it from the depredations of the European corn borer. By virtue of this modification, Bt toxin is also produced in the pollen of the corn plants.

Cornell scientists found that when monarch caterpillars were raised on leaves dusted with Bt-containing pollen, many of them died. This however was a laboratory study and not one done in the field so it only points out potential and does not determine actual probability that this would occur.

these sheep may be their field study!!!

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