Joe,
I think that it is wise to deal with the full publication, your
comments might have been reasonable had you not personalized them and
improperly suggested that the publication had found no serious
reduction.
Look, at 112 kg/ha N, which I regard as a fairly normal amount, they
got 367 ug/kg toxin. At zero N added, which I regard as rather
extreme, they got 350 ug/kg. That is a 4.6% reduction. This was a
greenhouse pot study if I remember correctly, and they did no bioassay.
Doing a bioassay on Bt corn leaves is a no-brainer in this context.
It is a cheap and easy technique. The results the authors obtained may
be academically interesting, but is there really any, ANY reason to
think that this is important in practice? GET REAL! Like it or not,
Bt corn is a pretty big hammer that absolutely obliterates pests like
ECB. Do you seriously think that a 4.6% reduction in toxin
concentration is likely to be important?
Joe I don't mean anything personal by this, I am just looking at the
numbers that are in the abstract you posted.
Dale
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