EPA APPROVES FIELD TEST OF GENETICALLY ALTERED VIRUS

Federal regulators have approved the nation's first open-air field test of a genetically engineered virus for use as a pesticide. Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research will test the virus on cabbage plants at a Cornell University Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., beginning later this month, said H. Alan Wood, the head virologist.

The test is designed to see if a genetically disabled virus will disappear from the environment quickly after working on insects, rather than lingering in the field. Several genetically altered bacteria have been tested as pesticides.