Pubdate: Mon, 03 Jul 2000 Source: Detroit Free Press (MI) Copyright: 2000 Detroit Free Press Contact: http://www.freep.com/ Forum: http://www.freep.com/webx/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Tim Johnson, Knight Ridder Newspapers UN WANTS TO TEST COCA KILLER IN COLOMBIA An Official Says Country Doesn't Want To Be Lab BOGOTA, Colombia -- On a tropical Hawaiian island, a killer fungus once ravaged a field of coca bushes. The plague in the 1970s excited antidrug experts in Washington, who later spent millions of dollars on a quest for a biological weapon to destroy the South American bushes fueling the cocaine trade. Now, under prodding from Washington, a United Nations agency wants to test the fungus on a small plot in Colombia, where much of the world's coca is grown. Opponents say the fungus might be toxic to farmers and wreak havoc on jungles that are treasures of biodiversity. Advocates say the fungus may become a silver bullet to kill coca plants and leave others unaffected. "Our experts tell us that it is worth trying," said Klaus Nyholm, director of the United Nations Drug Control Program's office in Colombia and Ecuador. U.S. scientists say they don't know yet whether the fungus would safely kill the nearly 300,000 acres of coca grown in Colombia without affecting other flora, or even human life. "The tests show so far that it is a reasonably good control agent. But I wouldn't extrapolate from that that it will work in Colombia," said Eric Rosenquist, a national program leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Research Service in Beltsville, Md. "The ecology is different. There are competing organisms." U.S. antidrug experts, though, cite compelling reasons to experiment further with the fungus, fusarium oxysporum, which is considered a plant pathogen, or mycoherbicide. For one, they say the fungus can be attached to seeds and dropped from high altitude. That beats the current strategy, in which U.S.-financed crop dusters buzz illegal coca fields at 150 feet or so -- sometimes risking a hail of bullets from the ground. Gunmen have hit spray planes 36 times so far this year, U.S. officials say. Moreover, planes could fly at night to drop the fungus, using sensors to target coca fields. "It looks incredibly promising," said Richard Baum, a policy analyst at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "However, we are waiting for the results of tests, and will proceed only if the scientists working with the government of Colombia tell us that mycoherbicides are safe." Colombia's Environment Minister Juan Mayr is opposed. "I told them, 'Gentlemen, your project is not welcome,"' Mayr said. Last year, amid an outcry from environmentalists and ranchers, Florida shelved a plan to test another strain of fusarium oxysporum against illegal marijuana crops. "If it's bad for Florida, why is it good for us?" asked Colombian Sen. Rafael Orduz, who called a hearing on the plan to test the fungus in early June. Infected plants are usually stunted. Their leaves turn pale green to golden yellow and later wilt, die and drop off progressively upward from the stem base. The fungus survives in the soil and produces spores that can live for many years without access to living host plants. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek