Dynamic role and importance of surrogate species for assessing potential adverse environmental impacts of genetically engineered insect-resistant plants on non-target organisms

Authors: WACH, MICHAEL - Environmental Risk Management; Hellmich Ii, Richard; LAYTON, RAYMOND - Dupont Pioneer Hi-Bred; ROMEIS, JORG - Agroscope; GADALETE, PATRICIA - Ministry Of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries

Submitted to: Transgenic Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/23/2016
Publication Date: 2/27/2016
Citation: Wach, M., Hellmich II, R.L., Layton, R., Romeis, J., Gadalete, P. 2016. Dynamic role and importance of surrogate species for assessing potential adverse environmental impacts of genetically engineered insect-resistant plants on non-target organisms. Transgenic Research. 25(4):499-505. doi:10.1007/s11248-016-9945-5.

Interpretive Summary: For over fifty years surrogate species have been used extensively to assess the effects of environmental stressors on various organisms. Although surrogate species testing may have originally been adopted for the simple reason that not all non-target organisms (NTO) could be tested, the value of surrogate species in environmental risk assessment (ERA) has been recognized globally and is now standard practice for the generation of ERA data. This is because surrogate species testing can generate consistent data, of high statistical power, that accurately predicts the environmental impacts of a given stressor. Data regarding impacts from genetically engineered insect resistant (GEIR) crops on surrogate species are informing regulatory decision making in every country that has considered the commercial deployment of these crops, and the track record of safe use of genetically engineered crops demonstrates the value and utility of surrogate species tests. However, the fact remains that there continues to be disharmony among regulatory systems that have developed globally, resulting in needless duplication of environmental safety testing and worse, the generation of incongruent conclusions regarding the safety of GEIR crops. Given the volume of NTO effects data generated through the use of surrogate species and the depth of analysis to which these data have been subjected, the following conclusions support the transportability and the acceptance of these available data, and new ones to be obtained, using surrogate species for the environmental risk assessment of new GEIR. 1) Current surrogates have worked well, based on a review of surrogate species tests and their ability to predict field level effects. 2) The surrogates species approach also should work well for newly developed GEIR using Bt proteins. 3) There does not appear to be a need for countries to perform non-target arthropod assessments on novel, local species simply because they are local, if an appropriate surrogate has already been tested. 4) Standards/criteria/protocols for laboratory testing using existing and newly identified surrogate species should be developed, validated, disseminated and used so that results are transportable. This information is useful to scientists, growers and consumers interested in the environmental safety of genetically engineered crops.

Technical Abstract: Surrogate species have a long history of use in research and regulatory settings to understand the potentially harmful effects of toxic substances including pesticides. More recently, surrogate species have been used to evaluate the potential effects of proteins contained in genetically engineered insect resistant (GEIR) crops. Species commonly used in GEIR crop testing include beneficial organisms such as honeybees, arthropod predators, and parasitoids. The choice of appropriate surrogates is influenced by scientific factors such as the knowledge of the mode of action and the spectrum of activity as well as societal factors such as protection goals that assign value to certain ecosystem services such as pollination or pest control. The primary reasons for using surrogates include the inability to test all possible organisms, the restrictions for using certain organisms in testing (e.g., rare, threatened, or endangered species), and the ability to achieve greater sensitivity and statistical power by using laboratory testing of certain species. The acceptance of surrogate species data can allow results from one region to be applied or “transported” for use in another region. On the basis of over a decade of using surrogate species to evaluate potential effects of GEIR crops it appears that the current surrogates have worked well to predict effects of GEIR crops that have been developed, and it is expected that they should work well to predict effects of future GEIR crops based on similar technologies.