'No foul play' over breach on plants

Plant & Food Research has ruled out "foul play or skulduggery" for the appearance outside its secure Lincoln laboratory of two plants that tests show were genetically modified (GM).

MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) is investigating the second possible breach in a year of strict GM containment rules by the Crown research institute (CRI).

Test results on the two suspect cress plants and other nearby weeds are being validated.

Plant & Food chief executive Peter Landon-Lane blamed an unnamed "third party" for the weeds when MAFBNZ released details of the possible breach on Monday.

On Tuesday, spokesman Roger Bourne said there was "no question of foul play or skulduggery".

"But we are looking into other visitors of the facility. Independent people operating in that facility haven't solely belonged to our organisation."

MAFBNZ spokeswoman Annie Wright said that would not influence the investigation of the security of Plant & Food's facilities.

The arabidopsis plants are widespread and commonly used for plant genome studies.

AgResearch, another Lincoln CRI involved in GM research, said it was not the third party referred to. General manager of applied biotechnologies, Jimmy Suttie, said the institute had not been using arabidopsis in any GM experiments.

"I gather it [the laboratory] was used by us about three years ago. It wasn't for arabidopsis but for other research," he said. Breaches of the rules reflected on all GM research, he said. "There's an issue, and it behoves everybody involved in the plant biotech world to have a damn good look."

Soil and Health Association spokesman Steffan Browning said the second case should be "a wake-up call to the Government that a major GE [genetic engineering] catastrophe is just a matter of time".

Containment facilities were only as good as human error or the structure allowed, he said.

As MAFBNZ had only warned Plant & Food last time, another organisation should do the testing on this case, Browning said. "Plant & Food got the lightest, lightest penalty they could have got. I actually want to see somebody else independently commissioned."

- © Fairfax NZ News