Altered Virus Fights and Dies--on Schedule

The genetically altered virus released in a cabbage patch three weeks ago in the first test of its kind has been killing off the pest it is supposed to fight and then dying off right on schedule, scientists said.

The virus killed off all the cabbage looper insects that it was supposed to as part of the controlled experiment, said H. Alan Wood, a virologist at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research.

The institute, which is conducting the tests at Cornell University’s Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, had the field sprayed for a second time Thursday.

“It’s very gratifying,” Wood said. “Our application technology was perfect. Everything was working just the way we predicted it would.”

The Aug. 9 spraying made history as the first field release of a genetically altered virus in the United States. The experiment was heralded as a milestone in the development of non-chemical methods of pest control.

The virus was genetically altered in the laboratory to be short-lived so that it would pose no threat of uncontrolled spreading.