Friends of the Earth identified two examples of GM-contaminated ho ney from bees in areas where large-scale GM field trials took place in 1999. This proved that the risks suggested by anti-GM campaigners and posed a serious threat to the UK's multi-million pound honey industry.

The German scientist Hans-Hinrich Kaatz confirmed that his latest study had found that a gene used in the engineering of GM oilseed rape had jumped species and infected bacteria in the guts of bees which fed off the GM rape's pollen. He believed that any danger to the bees' health could be ruled out but accepted that there might be implications for human health. He advised people not to panic until the results of research on the bees' human equivalents were known.

The DNA of bacteria and yeast taken from bees' guts contained the same modified genes as those added to the plants whose pollen the bees had fed on. This showed that modified genes can jump species, the `Pandora's Box' feared by anti-GM campaigners. When the bacteria and yeast were exposed to the herbicide glufosinate they survived, just as the GM plants on which they fed had been genetically engineered to do. Further work was needed to confirm these findings.