Field experiments with genetically manipulated insect viruses: ecological issues

Evil Oxford scientists, bent on world domination, release virus containing scorpion poison gene into English countryside. Well, not quite; but readers of the British press last summer might be forgiven for thinking that a latter-day Central Anarchist Council had taken root among the dreaming spires. The press reports concerned field experiments near Oxford of a genetically manipulated insect baculovirus by the National Environmental Research Council's (NERC) Institute for Virology and Environmental Microbiology (IVEM). But while it is easy to smile at sensational headlines, at least some of the press reporting has been accurate and informed, and raises important ecological issues - as well as questions about the regulation of experiments with genetically manipulated organisms.