Research: Pest increases resistance to Bt crops

UMD-led study provides new evidence of a decline in the effectiveness of genetically engineered traits widely used to protect corn crops from insects. This loss of effectiveness could damage U.S. corn production and spur increased use of potentially harmful insecticides.

Based on two decades of field experiments by University of Maryland researchers, the study concludes that damage to corn crops from a major insect pest called corn earworm is increasingly. Authored by two scientists from the University of Maryland's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and one from Benzon Research, an independent contract research facility, the study documents the growing resistance of the earworm to protective "Bt" genetic modifications widely used in corn and cotton crops.

Lead author Galen Dively, Professor Emeritus in UMD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources predicts that corn earworm resistance to the Bt technology is likely to increase, and spread. His team's results have broad implications for profitable corn production, biotechnology regulatory policies and sustainability of the use of Bt crop protection biotechnology.

Read more at Phys.org