Civil Liberties, Health Care, Food Policies

Potentially Deadly Fungus Spreading in U.S. and Canada

April 22, 2010

Reuters - A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday.

The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said.

"This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people," said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

"The findings presented here document that the outbreak of C. gattii in Western North America is continuing to expand throughout this temperate region," the researchers said in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens here

"Our findings suggest further expansion into neighboring regions is likely to occur and aim to increase disease awareness in the region."

The new strain appears to be unusually deadly, with a mortality rate of about 25 percent among the 21 U.S. cases analyzed, they said.

"From 1999 through 2003, the cases were largely restricted to Vancouver Island," the report reads.

"Between 2003 and 2006, the outbreak expanded into neighboring mainland British Columbia and then into Washington and Oregon from 2005 to 2009. Based on this historical trajectory of expansion, the outbreak may continue to expand into the neighboring region of Northern California, and possibly further."

The spore-forming fungus can cause symptoms in people and animals two weeks or more after exposure. They include a cough that lasts for weeks, sharp chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss.

It has also turned up in cats, dogs, an alpaca and a sheep.

Freezing can kill the fungus and climate change may be helping it spread, the researchers said.

Stricter Testing of Wheat Will Find GMOs

April 21, 2010

Reuters - Increased testing for genetically modified (GMO) materials in world wheat supplies will inevitably find them, due to contamination from other crops in the grain-handling system, the head of the Canadian Wheat Board said on Monday.

The expected finding of GMO materials in wheat highlights the need for the grain industry, governments and export markets to agree on accepting low levels of GMO materials, said Wheat Board chief executive officer Ian White in a presentation at the Canada Grains Council annual meeting in Winnipeg. There is no commercialized production of GMO wheat in the world, unlike other crops such as canola, corn and soybeans, due to opposition from consumers and food-industry players. GMO wheat production may not start for another 10 years, White said.

"But we will certainly see GM materials through the handling system ... For wheat, it could be a very, very major issue going forward. It's just that at this time, in a lot of areas, testing isn't done." If that testing were done now, it probably wouldn't find GMO materials, but such findings are "inevitable," White said.

The Wheat Board, which has a monopoly on selling Western Canada's wheat and barley, is one of the world's largest grain marketers. Most wheat importers have zero tolerance for genetically modified materials, White said. The Wheat Board does not support GMO wheat unless certain conditions are met, including acceptance by key export markets.

"To operate in a zero (tolerance) world, I think it's been demonstrated we can't," said Richard Wansbutter, chairman of the Canada Grains Council and vice president, commercial and government relations, of grain handler Viterra Inc. "We do need market acceptance (of GMO) in our major markets but most critically, a low-level presence policy."

The grain industry has asked Canada's negotiators to include such a policy in its current free-trade talks with the European Union, Wansbutter said. Tougher testing does not appear imminent because shippers have assured buyers that wheat shipments are GMO-free, White said.

However, Japan and the EU, whose consumers are wary of GMO foods, are the most likely to boost testing of wheat first, he said. The discovery of GMO materials in Canadian flax shipments to the EU last summer has led to a dramatic reduction in flax trade between Canada and the EU. The risk of a wheat shipment testing positive for GMO is damage to the shipper's reputation, White said.

"It does take you a lot of time to overcome that and to get back in that market the same way you were before is often difficult."