At least the UK public were aware that, for its own (difficult to understand) reasons, the UK Government was determined to conduct field trials of GM crops in the UK. What most did not realise, however, was that a field trial of a GM pesticide - actually a GM virus - was already ongoing. The GM virus was a baculo-virus, a virus specific to arthropods (insects, spiders and crustaceans) which had probably been genetically modified with a scorpion gene.

Even less is known about GM viruses than about GM plants - in particular about their ability to damage the environment or human/animal health. What is known is that their reproduction is unpredictable and prone to creating undesirable variants, and that they are very persistent. Baculoviruses have been used in gene therapy for humans. They can infect the liver and may have implications for auto-immune diseases.

See UK GM trial database compiled by Primal Seeds http://www.primalseeds.org/testsite.htm