| Title |
Is the German suspension of MON810 maize cultivation scientifically justified?
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Transgenic Research, June 2009
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s11248-009-9297-5 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Agnès Ricroch, Jean Baptiste Bergé, Marcel Kuntz |
| Abstract |
We examined the justifications invoked by the German government in April 2009 to suspend the cultivation of the genetically modified maize varieties containing the Bt insect-resistance trait MON810. We have carried out a critical examination of the alleged new data on a potential environmental impact of these varieties, namely two scientific papers describing laboratory force-feeding trials on ladybirds and daphnia, and previous data on Lepidoptera, aquatic and soil organisms. We demonstrate that the suspension is based on an incomplete list of references, ignores the widely admitted case-by-case approach, and confuses potential hazard and proven risk in the scientific procedure of risk assessment. Furthermore, we did not find any justification for this suspension in our extensive survey of the scientific literature regarding possible effects under natural field conditions on non-target animals. The vast majority of the 41 articles published in 2008 and 2009 indicate no impact on these organisms and only two articles indicate a minor effect, which is either inconsistent during the planting season or represents an indirect effect. Publications from 1996 to 2008 (376 publications) and recent meta-analyses do not allow to conclude on consistent effects either. The lower abundance of some insects concerns mainly specialized enemies of the target pest (an expected consequence of its control by Bt maize). On the contrary, Bt maize have generally a lower impact than insecticide treatment. The present review demonstrates that the available meta-knowledge on Cry1Ab expressing maize was ignored by the German government which instead used selected individual studies. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Norway | 1 | 50% |
| Unknown | 1 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 50% |
| Members of the public | 1 | 50% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 127 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 3 | 2% |
| United States | 2 | 2% |
| Spain | 2 | 2% |
| Italy | 1 | <1% |
| Austria | 1 | <1% |
| Mexico | 1 | <1% |
| France | 1 | <1% |
| Australia | 1 | <1% |
| Denmark | 1 | <1% |
| Other | 0 | 0% |
| Unknown | 114 | 90% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | 45 | 35% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 18 | 14% |
| Student > Bachelor | 13 | 10% |
| Student > Master | 12 | 9% |
| Professor | 7 | 6% |
| Other | 24 | 19% |
| Unknown | 8 | 6% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 75 | 59% |
| Environmental Science | 11 | 9% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 8 | 6% |
| Social Sciences | 6 | 5% |
| Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 2 | 2% |
| Other | 11 | 9% |
| Unknown | 14 | 11% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 29. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 May 2022.
All research outputs
#1,134,660
of 22,705,019 outputs
Outputs from Transgenic Research
#23
of 889 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,314
of 111,268 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Transgenic Research
#1
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,705,019 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 889 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
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