Page 4/The Battalion/Tuesday, May 6, 1986
Panel scrutinizes A&M use
of genetically altered virus
DALLAS (AP) — Texas re
searchers who used a vaccine con
taining a genetically altered virus
on pigs will have their action scru
tinized by a special committee
later this month.
The panel of scientists, ap
pointed by the National Institutes
of Health, will decide whether re
searchers at Texas A&M Univer
sity violated federal rules involv
ing genetic alteration.
The vaccine in question was
used on 1,400 pigs on a Lometa,
Texas, farm two years ago under
the direction of the Texas Animal
Health Commission and re
searchers at Texas A&M.
The vaccine was developed by
removing a gene from the virus
that causes a form of herpes that
affects one in 10 pigs.
Sale of the vaccine was halted
last month by the U.S. Depart
ment of Agriculture to assess its
environmental impact.
Sales resumed after a review.
The USDA action was
prompted by concerns raised by
Jeremy Rifkin, president of an
organization seeking stricter gov
ernment control of genetically
engineered organisms.
Rifkin, of the Washington-
based Foundation on Economic
Trends, said he objected to licens
ing the vaccine because it had not
been reviewed by the Agriculture
Department’s Recombinant DNA
Advisory Committee.
Rifkin said he then learned
that animal tests of the vaccine
hadn’t been reviewed by the
counterpart committee at the Na
tional Institutes of Healths
Federally funded researchers,
before beginning Field tests of a
recombinant DNA product, must
submit their plans to the NIH,
which decides whether to ap
prove the tests.
Texas A&M’s Institutional Bi
osafety Committee, after public
ity about Rifkin’s initial objections
to the vaccine licensing, sub
mitted a “report of a potential vi
olation” to NIH, said Dr. Bernard
Talbot, adviser to the NIH Re
combinant DNA Committee.
Saul Kit, head of biochemical
virology at the Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston, who devel
oped the vaccine, contends the
vaccine didn’t need NIH appro
val because it wasn’t created with
recombinant DNA.
Railway cars carrying acid dert
TULIA, Texas (AP) — Four
tanker cars carrying sulfuric acid de
railed Monday near this Panhandle
town when a freight train of the
Santa Fe Railway Co. hit an empty
tank car, a company spokesman say^.
Crew members on the train suf
fered only bumps and bruises in the
collision about 60 miles southwest of
Amarillo, said Robert Gehrt, direc
tor of public relations for the Santa
Fe Railway in Chicago.
Initially, Gehrt had said the empty
car may have been moved in front of
the train by vandals. But FBI offi
cials say railway spokesmen said
it was an accident.
FBI spokesman U.H. Specht said,
“The railroad’s saying it’s accidental.
We have to go pretty much with
what the railroad tells us.”
Company spokesman Richard
Hall said, “We are not directly blam
ing that incident on vandalism.” He
added that high winds may have
pushed the empty car ontij
line.
Gerht said that the tanka
by the freight train had!
with potentially explosives
ammonia before being
over the weekend.
James Hart, dispatcher!
Tulia police departme:!
cleanup crews managed rtj
the acid that had run
bed and that no evacuationij
essary.
c<
Re
nomii
Mont
Mark
genet
need
Oil predicted to stabilize at $20 per bam
HOUSTON (AP) — Oil prices
should stabilize at about $20 a barrel
by the end of the year, but continued
low prices could mean doom for
many energy-related companies,
Pennzoil Co. President Richard J.
Howe predicted Monday.
“I seriously hope our forecasts are
too bearish, but only time will tell,”
he said at a news conference at the
annual Offshore Technology Con
ference.
Crude oil prices were less than
$15 per barrel Monday, up from
even lower $12 levels of a few weeks
ago but well off the $28-per-barrel
range at this time last year.
“I think it’s obvious the longer it
stays at this low level then]
cult it is going to be,” HotJ
don’t think anybody known
tainly wouldn’t ventureag
to how many companies mip
the boards. But if it (the pit
goes into the low teens;
there, there will be a lotdl
nies leaving or not survivinn
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