Risk to Monarch Butterfly due to Bt-Corn, Monarch, Laboratory experiments, Milkweed leaves, Several studies, Beneficial insect

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Home >> Plant Biotechnology and Genomics >> Field Testing and Commercialization >> Risk to Monarch Butterfly Due to BT Corn

	Risk to monarch butterfly due to Bt-corn Laboratory experiments were conducted to find out if monarch butterfly larvae fed on pollen from Bt-corn would survive. In one such experiment conducted in the year 1999, it was shown that the larvae fed on high density of pollen applied on milkweed leaves (on which monrach butterflies generally feed), were killed. However, such laboratory experiments did not simulate the natural conditions. Consequently, when several studies were conducted to test further the effect of Bt-pollen under natural conditions on monarch butterfly, it could be shown that Bt-corn did not pose any threat to the beneficial insects like monarch butterfly.
Biotechnology industry in USA also organized a task force to assess through laboratory and field studies the risk posed by transgenic corn to monarch butterfly and similar other beneficial insects. This task force also reported that monarch butterflies in general were not at risk due to Bt corn events MON 810 and Bt 11, which dominate the Bt corn acreage in North America. In these studies, it was also shown that corn pollen level on milkweed leaves on an average is about 170 pollen grains per cm², while the toxic effects are observed only when the Bt pollen level reaches higher than 1000 pollen grains per cm².
In a series of six papers that were published in 2001 in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA also, results of studies were presented, which supported the belief that monarch butterflies are not at risk due to Bt-corn. Only in case of the event Bt 176, toxic effects were reported at a dose level of as low as 10 pollen per cm², but this event never occupied more than 2% of corn acreage in USA and will be phased out by the year 2003.

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