On April 16, the New York Times ran a full-page ad from contact lens producer Bausch and Lomb, announcing the recall of its “ReNu with MoistureLoc” rewetting solution, and warning the 30 million American wearers of soft contact lenses about Fusarium keratitis. This infection, first detected in Asia, has rapidly spread across the United States. It is caused by a… return to article
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Reader Comments (13)Page 1 of 1 pagesGreat, idiot right-wingers from the Indiana Congressional delegation once again represent my home state shamefully and tar the image of Indiana through the mud. Burton is a disgrace and represents the darkest form of the War on Drugs. An irrational obsession with the failed project leads to him supporting insane laws such as the one described in the article.
Posted by Liberal on Jun 6, 2006 at 9:31 AM Seems odd to use this fungus, considering half the crops they spray are food anyways. Sounds like a fun way to increase gain imports in the 3rd world. (cough cough, Indiana) Seriosuly, when was Cocain ever a serious issue in Indiana?
Posted by Vanella on Jun 6, 2006 at 9:37 AM It never was, not that I know of. Crystal meth is more of a problem, but that is made in the basements of farmhouses out here, not imported from South America.
Posted by Liberal on Jun 6, 2006 at 9:57 AM Fusarium kerititas is not just any Fusarium. Equating it with the crop-control Fusarium is not accurate. Mutation would only rarely produce the equivalent to F. kerititas from Fusarium adapted to grow on plants.
And such mutations would typically fall far from eyes suitable for its growth. In short, there is virtually no danger that sprays of Fusarium would result in serious eye infections.
Posted by briancady413 on Jun 6, 2006 at 11:00 AM In response to Briancady’s point above, I merely meant to show that a toxic fungus—one that can conceievably mutate to attack humans—is being considered for biocontrol, even though all of the U.S. government entitites that have studied it have rejected it.
And in order to simplify the article, I only mentioned the genus—Fusarium. The species of fungus being considered for biocontrol of coca is a strain of Fusarium oxysporum that was originally isolated from Erythroxylum novogranatense, hence its short name - strain “EN-4”. The target crop is not E. novogranatense, but another species entirely called E. coca—the true “coca” plant. This alone shows non-specificity of this fungus. EN-4, like so many other Fusaria has been shown to mutate and attack or reside in other biota.
In the case of the Fusarium that is attacking people’s eyes across the USA, most of the scientists I interviewed claimed that the culprit was Fusarium oxysporum—the same Fuasrium oxysporum that is being considered for biocontrol. Some said that the culprit might also be Fusarium solani or another species, but this was the minority opinion.
Indeed , the fungal keratitis species is a different “forma specialis” - or strain of Fusarium than the coca-eating strain. But this is essentailly a semantic argumanet: when a fungus mutates and attacks another species of host it merely becomes a different forma specialis. So the concept of forma specialis isn’t worth much. Most of the scientists I interviewed for this work thought that keratitus-causing fungus had come from natural “background” Fusarium growing on plants and then were rubbed into contact lenses and eyes.
There is also something else to consider here. The more one applies Fusarium to a given area, the more likely mutation is to occur. If one were to massively douse people with this fungus in Colombia from cropdusters, one would expect to hear about many problems. There should be no doubt that family members of immunodeficient people who die from Fusariosis after being sprayed or living in areas that had been sprayed are going to want to sue the US or do even worse harm to it - ebven if it wasn’t caused by the spraying.
Of course, BrianCady is free to challenge my arguments by liberally applying Fusarium oxysporum strain “EN-4” to his eyes and then wearing contact lenses over the fungus. If, after a couple of months of daily applications, he still has intact corneas, I would be most happy to revise the assertions I made in the article.
All kidding aside, in a very real sense, the same species that Souder and Burton are touting for drug control could concievably mutate and attack people’s eyes. And it’ could do far worse too. Any foreign use of the fungus would be globally viewed as a unilateral step by the U.S. of legitimizing biological warfare. Such a step would provoke our enemies to respond in kind - against our crops, and/or against our persons.
Posted by madera on Jun 6, 2006 at 9:59 PM Many herbalists have worked for decades to develop markets for legitimate exports of useful agricultural products. For instance, jergon sacha has shown much potential as an immune enhancer and can be grown in the same areas where coca plants are now cultivated.
It takes a long time to provide farmers with cash crop alternatives to what they are presently growing. Spreading a fast mutating mold could have devastating effects not only on people but on the potential for growing useful crops.
Posted by moldmisery on Jun 7, 2006 at 1:07 PM Hate to be a nitpicker, but please tell the person who creates the headlines that the country is called Colombia, not Columbia. I’ve seen it mispelled in the NY Times, in the coffee aisle at Whole Foods, everywhere. Why is it so difficult for Americans to learn the simple name of a country?
Posted by Mental Ray on Jun 9, 2006 at 11:58 AM I’m not sure if we really have anyway of stopping our government of doing anything. It all want down hill when we lost the right to yell fire in a crowded theatre.
Posted by Vanella on Jun 10, 2006 at 7:05 PM If they kill all the crops, who is gonna sell Souder and Burton the crack they were smoking when they came up with that idea?
Posted by Drutch on Jun 13, 2006 at 4:45 PM Want to win the phony war on drugs ? Stop the CIA from being the biggist drug pushers in the world!
Posted by kungfublood on Jun 14, 2006 at 7:59 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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Also by Jeremy Bigwood
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