Risk assessment and risk management of transgenic microorganisms and viruses

It is almost impossible to get a clear grasp of the distribution of microorganisms and viruses, once they are released into the field. Therefore it should be restricted to only the transgenic microorganisms and viruses which are neither infect nor proliferate in the natural environment. (It is all right that an inoculated transgenic microorganism or virus is proliferates only in the individual organism.) Otherwise we cannot manage the risks of the transgenic microorganisms and viruses.

My comment may not be appropriate, since it is uncertain for me what should be discussed in this forum. Forgive me, if so.


Shigeki Inumaru
National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
National Institute of Animal Health

I would add to Dr. Inumaru’s comment that in addition to the great gap of knowledge we have about the diversity of microorganisms (including viruses) is the great gap of knowledge we have about their biology. As a microbiologist, I would be very hesitant to argue that I could guarantee that any virus would only transfer to recipients of a particular defined species range. While we may be pretty sure that some virus types presently include no individuals that cause disease outside of a defined species range, transfer is a very different, and much more difficult, standard to prove. Some hazards arise simply from transfer, not from the completion of a particular disease-associated lifecycle.

I would also be hesitant to conclude that viruses projected to be unable to propagate outside of the laboratory will always be unable to do so, particularly when they may come within recombination-distance of the very many unknown, non-disease causing viruses transferring through the same host.