CANBERRA, Australia, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Scientists working for the Australian government have created a genetically engineered mousepox virus more deadly to mice than the original virus. Even when vaccinated with a normally effective vaccine, half the mice died after infection with the new virus.
Biological warfare experts are worried that the current international Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, abbreviated BTWC, may not be strong enough to cope with the misuse of the genetic engineering techniques. Governments from all over the world have been meeting in Geneva for six years to address the BTWC shortcomings, but have failed to reach final agreement.
Dr. Ian Ramshaw, a viral engineer and the immunologist on the mousepox experiment, told United Press International that inserting genetic material has hazards. His team will publish their research in the February issue of the Journal of Virology.
"It is a potentially vile weapon," Renshaw said.
The mousepox scientists, working for the Cooperative Research Center for the Biological Control of Pest Animals in Canberra, were looking for a way to control mouse populations. CRC director Dr. Bob Seamark told UPI that rodents "destroy 20 to 60 percent of grain crops" in Australia and countries in southeast Asia.
"We are trying to develop a new generation of biological control agents that target fertility," said Seamark. "We genetically modify the virus such that the immune response of the pest animal leads to an attack on its own reproductive system and blocks fertility."
The scientists inserted several foreign genes into the mousepox virus, which normally is not very pathogenic for mice. One of the inserted viral genes was supposed to trick the female mouse immune system into attacking its own egg cells. But another inserted gene, called IL-4, caused the mouse immune system to respond in a way that left the mouse vulnerable to the normally harmless effects of the virus itself.
Seamark told UPI he too is concerned about potential misuse of the technology.
Seamark's concerns were echoed by Dr. Jonathan Tucker, director of Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Calif. The rate and direction of biotechnological advance is "very ominous. It is outstripping the ability and political will of the international community to control these technologies," Tucker told UPI.
Tucker said that many corporations are opposed to mandatory inspections, fearing that proprietary information could be stolen. This fear has delayed treaty negotiations, along with demands from many nations who wish to import dual use equipment, Tucker added.
Dr. Annabelle Duncan, one of Australia's representatives at international arms control meetings and Chief of Molecular Science at CSIRO, an Australian research group that worked on the virus project, said: "At the moment we have a biological weapons convention that has absolutely no teeth."
Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, talked to UPI about the BTWC meetings in Geneva. Haq said "there is some hope that possibly later this year they may complete their work on the protocol."
But current approaches to biological weapons of mass destruction may not work. Monica Schoch-Spana, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies told UPI, "We need some innovation.... How do you regulate the biotechnology industry such that there isn't potential misuse at the same time that you allow the industry to grow?"
Dr. Fred Murphy, professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Calif., Davis, and former director of the National Center of Infectious Diseases, told UPI, "Before the fall of the Soviet Union the Soviets were making plague organisms that were resistant to antibiotics."
There were about 40,000 people involved in production at huge facilities, Murphy said. The Soviets had signed the BTWC in 1972 but did not abide by it.
(Reported by Joe Grossman in Santa Cruz, Calif.)
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.