Govt funds social science for transgenic bid to kill possums

The Government's main science funding agency is boosting funding for biosecurity research -- including paying for social scientists to work on public attitudes to methods such a genetically-engineered organisms to kill possums.

The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology money is putting an extra $2.5 million a year for the next four to eight years into funding "socially acceptable" ways to control possum numbers.

The money is part of a $70 million boost for biosecurity research over the next 12 years.

The new-look research team will include social scientists "to ensure the public is comfortable with the biological controls proposed", the foundation said.

The social scientists would consult the public about the methods being developed and determine the factors that should be taken into consideration before such controls were used.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Morgan Williams, warned scientists in 1998 that genetically engineering organisms to make possums infertile might be a wasted effort.

The technologies eventually produced might be unacceptable to the public and politicians some time in the future, so a lot more effort should be made now to educate the public about the science involved, he said then.

The extra funding announced today will combine the separate lines of research being followed by Agresearch and Landcare Research -- the main scientists working on biological control of possums.

"Integration of the two teams should result in better outcomes, achieved more quickly than the two teams working separately," the foundation said in a statement.

The two government science companies' geneticists, molecular biologists and experts in mammalian reproduction will working together on controlling possums.

Agresearch is working on making possums sterile with genetically engineered nematode worms.

Science magazine New Scientist has previously reported that though a transgenic form of the parasitic nematode Parastrongyloides trichosuri might sterilise possums in New Zealand, it could turn out to be catastrophic for the animals in their native Australia.

A possum biocontrol team at Landcare Research sought a protein that turns a female possum's immune system against its reproductive system, making it infertile.

But the Landcare Research scientists have also been conducting a national telephone survey to find out more about people's views on possums, the current control methods of trapping and poisoning, and two potential fertility control methods which might include the use of genetic engineering.

One method involves a bait containing a protein from possum eggs, which makes the female possum react against its own eggs, and become less fertile.

The other involves curtailing possums' sex drive, through a bait containing a drug which kills the specific brain cells that control the production of breeding hormones.

Initial tests to see if a protein engineered into potatoes would be absorbed into possums and activate their immune system have proven the concept is technically feasible.

Controlling possum numbers is crucial because they threaten New Zealand's native forests, and compete with native birds and insects for food.

They also carry bovine tuberculosis, which leaves New Zealands beef and dairy export vulnerable to non-tariff trade barriers against product from "infected" regions.

But scientists have said possum numbers cannot be permanently lowered with current poisoning and trapping methods, for both environmental cost reasons.

The Department of Conservation, the Animal Health Board, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, regional councils and private landowners currently spend millions of dollars every year controlling possums, and a successful "biocontrol" could cut their costs and divert funds to other aspects of biodiversity management, including other biosecurity threats.

The new combined programme features a coordinted approach by the major organisations responsible for the development and implementation of current possum control in New Zealand -- the Department of Conservation, the Animal Health Board, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and regional councils.

The foundation said that their involvement ensured the new control methods, once developed, would be able to be implemented quickly and efficiently.

The research programme would reduce the use of less-humane, non-specific and environmentally damaging poisons.

In the broader area covered by the $70 funding boots, research will be undertaken by an unincorporated joint venture of nine partners which includes research organisations and agencies with responsibility for the New Zealand environment.

The contract manager for the $70 milliion programme, Dr Grant Smith, of Crop and Food Research, said work would focus on developing new biosecurity systems and tools for use before, at, or immediately within New Zealand's border.

"The economic cost to this country of pests like the painted apple moth arriving in New Zealand are huge," he said. "The annual total cost of new insect pests to the country is about $2 billion."

This included the direct costs of eradicating pests, opportunity costs to exporters who cannot get market access because of the pests, and costs to the environment and natural estate value of the country.

"We must develop better systems and tools to protect New Zealand from these destructive pests and so we welcome additional government investment".

The researchers will work closely with the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity.

- NZPA