USDA opens comment period for Pioneer's new hybrid with trait resistant to corn rootworm

Date:11-05-2020

USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has opened a 60-day comment period on a Pioneer Hi-Bred International petition seeking deregulation of a corn variety genetically engineered to be resistant to corn rootworm and tolerant of glufosinate herbicides.

Western corn rootworm is estimated to cause more than $1 billion in damages annually in the U.S. and Europe, according to a paper this year from Pioneer parent Corteva Agriscience.

"WCR have demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt to many of the existing management practices, and have developed resistance not only to soil and aerially applied insecticides," but also to some proteins derived from Bt that are expressed in genetically modified corn, the paper said.