Canola taskforce finds small contamination

The taskforce appointed by the Australian Oilseeds Federation and the Australian Seeds Federation to investigate the recent detection of genetically modified canola seed in a small, non-GM shipment has found the contamination was limited to just one commercial cultivar.

Jim McDonald, the independent Brisbane consultant who headed the taskforce, said GM material was present at a very low level in Grace, which had been grown in all states in recent years.

The tests were performed in 55 commercial seed lines, down to a limit of 0.01 per cent. The Topaz 'event' -- a transgene that confers resistance to Bayer's Liberty-Link herbicide -- was present at levels between 0.01 and 0.4 per cent.

The highest level is still less than half the 0.9 per cent limit stipulated by the European Union for GM contamination of imported, non-GM produce -- the strictest of any non-GM nation, and the figure chosen by Australian agriculture ministers as the maximum allowable level of contamination in Australian canola.

The taskforce grew out 1 million seeds from the original grain consignment. Among the resulting, million-odd seedlings only 160, or 0.016 per cent) survived spraying with Liberty-Link.

McDonald said the contamination may have come from a canola seed-increase crop grown in Tasmania in the late 1990s, before the southern states imposed their current moratoria.

He said it is unclear whether the original contamination involved stray seed, or arose through cross pollination with a nearby experimental plot containing the Topaz gene, but the transgene appears to have introgressed into the Grace cultivar at a very low level. The Tasmanian government has asked the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator to investigate.