http://www.boston.com/dailynews/011/economy/USDA_says_field_testing_biotec:.shtml

USDA says field testing biotech insect is safe

By Associated Press, 1/11/2002 15:05

WASHINGTON (AP) The government has cleared the way for the first field tests of a genetically engineered insect, a moth that contains a jellyfish gene.

The Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service concluded Friday that the tests, which are to be conducted at an agency facility in Arizona, would not pose a risk to the environment.

The USDA agency regulates field trials of genetically engineered plants and insects and in this case its own scientists are also running the experiments. The pink bollworm moth was developed at a California university.

The jellyfish gene gives the moth larvae a fluorescence that allows them to be tracked. If this experiment is successful, the next step is to test a sterile version that will mate with wild relatives and eliminate their offspring. The pink bollworm is a major pest of cotton farmers in the Southwest.

Moths with the jellyfish gene will be set free under screened cages in a government-owned cotton field and studied to determine if they have show any unusual behavior. An agency spokesman said he did not know when the tests would start.

In a report, the USDA agency said there was an ''exceedingly low'' chance of any unanticipated genetic change in the moth.

On the Net: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/biotech/arthropod

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2002

Answers

Scary.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2002

The jellyfish gene gives the moth larvae a fluorescence that allows them to be tracked...

Gee, if we could do this with mosquitoes, it would be ever so much easier to kill them in our rooms at night.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2002

a fly swatter still works 4 me brooks (purring cat refuses to leave my lap)

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2002

but meemur, you have to find the evil little bugger first...

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

With my eyesight, I'd have a hard time finding the evil little flyswatter, let alone hitting the mosquito.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Jurassic park isn't too far away, I guess.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Barefoot, if the skeeters were Jurassic size, I wouldn't need them to be fluorescent.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

according to the movie the mosquitos were the same size as now.

Course if they were bigger then OG could see them...not that she'd want to if they were bigger. LOL

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002