Biotech Updates

Resistance to Bt Cotton Reported in Western India

March 19, 2010

An article published by Science reports that a new insect pest has developed resistance to Monsanto's genetically modified cotton in India. Science quoted Monsanto as saying that it has "detected unusual survival" of pink bollworms fed with the Bt Cry1Ac protein produced by the GM cotton. Monsanto said that the discovery "is the first case of field-relevant resistance to Cry1Ac products, anywhere in the world."

 Monsanto said in statement released last March 5 that during field monitoring of the 2009 cotton crop in Gujarat state, its scientists collected "large numbers" of pink bollworms from Bollgard cotton. The pink bollworms were collected and were exposed to high concentrations of the insecticidal Cry1Ac protein and were found to survive. The problem appears to be isolated, but Monsanto says it reported its findings "to key stakeholders so appropriate decisions can be made."

The original story is available at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/327/5972/1439