The First Year Commercial Performance of WideStrike Biotech Cotton.

The article describes the commercial performance of WideStrike™ biotech cotton. WideStrike™ cotton varieties have been tested by Dow AgroSciences LLC in field trials for more than three years. It was also tested under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Experimental Use Permits in 2003 and 2004. It received full registration from the agency on September 20, 2004 for commercial production in 2005-2006. The variety is most effective against four key pests, namely, tobacco budworm or Heliothis virescens, the American bollworm or Helicoverpa armigera, pink bollworm or Pectinophora gossypiella and the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa zea. It is also effective against heliothine lepidopterans because it carries the Cry1Ac gene that has proved effective in the form of Bollgard cotton.