fungus

[carla]

I got this e-mail a week ago. Needless to say the link is broken. Makes you wonder?

Google News Alert for: Morgellons
Morgellons - The Truth Revealed
ScienceBlog.com - Los Angeles,CA,USA
a) My research has shown that one of the culprits of Morgellons disease is Monsanto Corporation Roundup weed killer which has introduced killer funguses ...

[weredIgo]

Something else to think about. I used this product a couple of times. You know I think it was after that , that we kept fighting this green mold on the back of our home. We would have it pressure cleaned, but it always came back. Also did not notice neighbors houses having this problem. Another thing , I can't tell you the times hunks of money was spent on landscaping. Nothing would grow. When we first bought the new home, everything grew great. We had a mold problem inside too. We lived in a little camper and the carport for eight months in 2003 while the house was gutted because of mold. It was at that time that my husband and I both got breathing problems. The morgs didn't show up until around Aug. 2004. Gosh I could go on and on. Killer fungus, this is killer something. Just ask my husband. OH, we can't.

Thanks for listening,

Claudia

[Sadsack]

Carla -
I tried to see the article within a few hours of getting the same notification, and the post had already been pulled down. I wrote to Maggiema and she does not know who had posted it or who removed it.
The plot thickens, as they say.
SS

[carla]

Weedkiller may encourage blight

A WIDELY used herbicide encourages the growth of toxic fungi that devastate wheat fields, laboratory studies by scientists working for the Canadian government suggest. If field studies confirm that the herbicide, glyphosate, increases the risk of fungal infections - which are already a huge problem - farmers might be advised to use it less. That could be a major blow for backers of genetically modified wheat in Canada, because the first GM variety up for approval in Canada is modified to be glyphosate-resistant. If it gets the go-ahead, there is likely to be an overall increase in glyphosate use.
The potential problem was spotted a few years ago by Myriam Fernandez of the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre run by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. She noticed that in some fields where glyphosate had been applied the previous year, wheat appeared to be worse affected by fusarium head blight- a devastating fungal disease that damages grain and turns it pink. In Europe alone, fusarium head blight destroys a fifth of wheat harvests. The fungi that cause the disease also produce toxins that can kill humans and animals.
In a follow-up study, Fernandez measured levels of the blight in wheat fields. "We found higher levels of blight within each tillage category when glyphosate had been used in the previous year," says her colleague Keith Hanson. And his lab study showed that Fusarium graminearum and F. avenaceum, the fungi that cause head blight, grow faster when glyphosate-based weedkillers are added to the nutrient medium.
But the investigators warn against jumping to conclusions. "We're deferring judgement until we have all the data," says Hanson. His team is now planning field and greenhouse trials.
Hanson stresses that the real issue is whether the fungi leave more spores in the soil. It is also possible that the effect is simply due to herbicides leaving more dead plant matter in the soil for fungi to grow on and is not directly caused by glyphosate. His field studies should provide answers next spring, he says.
Monsanto, the company based in St Louis, Missouri, that sells glyphosate as Roundup, as well as a number of "Roundup Ready" crops modified to be resistant to it, claims that glyphosate is already widely used without causing any apparent problems with fungi. Monsanto applied to the Canadian government last December for approval of its Roundup Ready GM wheat. It says it will be keeping a close watch on Hanson's research.
The team's initial findings are likely to be seized upon by anti-GM activists. But switching to other herbicides could be bad news for the environment: glyphosate is one of the least harmful herbicides, as it quickly breaks down in the soil.
Ironically, Syngenta, another biotech giant, based in Basle, Switzerland, has been developing and testing both genetically modified and conventional wheat strains that are resistant to the fusarium head fungi. "The results have been promising," says a Syngenta spokesman.



Andy Coghlan
New Scientist issue: 16th August 2003