Assessment of Bollgard II cotton pollen mediated transgenes flow to conventional cotton in the farming conditions of Burkina Faso

Cotton is the main cash crop in Burkina Faso. However, production is highly affected by bollworms and leafworms in the last years due to the spread out of the resistance of bollworms to most used pesticides. This has led to experiment on Bt cotton from 2003 to 2007. The inevitable coexistence between transgenic and conventional cottons requires the assessment of transgene outflow. The study was carried out from 2004 to 2006, at Farako-Bâ, Boni and Kouare. The presence/absence of transgenes was assessed using Bollgard II detection kits. The experimental design consisted of a Bt plot surrounded by a non-transgenic field. Different distances between the Bt and the non-transgenic field were considered. Application and non application of pest control measure was also taken into account. The results show that without insecticide application, the flow of transgene near the source at 2 m (4.63 %) was different and higher than those of more distant rates. With insecticide application, no transgene flow was detected at ≥ 25 m from the transgenic field. Study must be continued after commercial adoption to draw concrete conclusions and to suggest some strategies to prevent Bt cotton transgene outflow in Burkina Faso. Keywords: Transgenic cotton, Bollgard II cotton, Transgenes, transgene outflow, immunological test, Burkina Faso. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(33), pp. 5192-5199