I hope I am not the only one skeptical about this.
There would be no need to bring this fungus species to the US, it has long been here and probably originated here. It is US grain exports that are the likely cause of it spreading worldwide.
Who knows what the actual story is? The reporting raises more questions than answers. China! Communists! Terrorism! This, coming from the people who are shutting down research, attacking universities, antagonizing China, and whipping up racist fears.
Historically, the first outbreak of this fungus was reported in 1884 in England, followed by America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa [2,3,4]. An estimated loss of USD 3 billion throughout the 1990s was documented in North America. Since then, approximately 28 million metric tons of wheat grain has been infected, accounting for almost USD 5.6 billion [1,5]. From 2004 to 2012, the annual economic losses ranged from CAD 1 million to 9 million in Alberta, Canada (Government of Alberta, 2015).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11053692/The fungus labeled a "potential agroterrorism weapon" in a recent arrest touted by the Trump administration likely originated in North America and is already widely prevalent around the country, a researcher who studied the fungus for the federal government says.
F. graminearum is already widely prevalent across the U.S. in native grasses around the country as well as crops, scientists say. It spreads and thrives usually during wet weather, causing a common crop disease called Fusarium head blight or head scab, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.
"It's extremely prevalent in North America. It likely arose in North America, so it's not like a foreign agent coming in. And it's already causing a lot of problems in U.S. agriculture," Harold Kistler, an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, told CBS News.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fungus-agroterrorism-arrest-widely-prevalent-us-researcher/Red scare! Yellow peril! Wuhan flu redux! They're eating the cats and dogs!
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