Biohazard Hidden In A Tissue, Stashed In A Backpack: How Two Scientists Tried Sneaking The Crop-Killing Fungus Into US

It started with a wad of tissues and ended with an FBI biohazard alert.

Samples of a pathogen identified by the U.S. Department of Justice as Fusarium Graminearum

New Delhi: Two Chinese researchers, Yunqing Jian (33) and Zunyong Liu (34), stand accused of bringing into the United States a deadly agricultural pathogen tucked away inside tissue paper. The fungus, Fusarium graminearum, is a crop-killer that can silently devastate wheat, barley, maize and rice – which are staples of global food security. The mold also carries the terrifying potential to cause vomiting, reproductive defects, liver damage and more in humans and animals.

According to an FBI affidavit, when agents tested the smuggled material, they discovered DNA sequences that would allow anyone with biological knowledge to propagate the fungus in a lab. In other words, it was a ticking agroterrorism time bomb.

Though the two researchers, believed to be romantically involved, are not charged with trying to weaponise the pathogen, Liu allegedly smuggled it into the United States knowingly and hid it in his backpack. They never even applied for the USDA permit required for importing such biohazards.

Now, they are facing a mountain of federal charges – conspiracy, smuggling, false statements and visa fraud.

A Silent Killer, a Growing Global Threat

Fusarium graminearum is no ordinary fungus. Once it takes hold, it causes Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), also called “scab”. To the untrained eye, it looks like discolored lesions. But for farmers, it is a nightmare.

“In just a few weeks before harvest, it can destroy an entire field of what once promised a record yield,” CNN has quoted plant pathology expert Gary Bergstrom from Cornell University as saying.

The FHB has already inflicted billions of dollars in damage - $2.7 billion to be precise, across the central United States and Northern Plains between 1998 and 2000 alone. And it has not stopped. The fungus survives winters on infected wheat straw and corn stalks, waiting for warm and wet weather to unleash a new wave of spores.

Those spores do not only ruin crops, they poison them as well. Grains infected with FHB contain vomitoxin (DON), a powerful mycotoxin linked to gastrointestinal disorders, neuroendocrine damage and even immune suppression in both humans and animals.

In livestock, it leads to diarrhea, hemorrhaging and skin issues. And though food processing reduces levels, the United States FDA has strict guidelines to keep DON out of the food chain.

How Dangerous Could This Be?

Why would someone smuggle a known agricultural biohazard into the United States?

Investigators have not found proof of malicious intent, but Liu – despite knowing the USDA restrictions – allegedly brought the fungus anyway. Experts are warning that even unintentional import of a foreign fungal strain could be catastrophic.

“If a new trait enters our environment, like resistance to current fungicides or increased toxin output, it could cripple our defenses,” Bergstrom told CNN.

Adding to the fear is the fungus’s growing resistance to existing fungicides. Recent studies from Poland confirm that Fusarium graminearum is mutating fast. Traditional methods are faltering, and researchers are scrambling to develop new fungicides and resistant crop strains.

As the USDA and federal prosecutors investigate, the world watches closely. Not because two scientists crossed a dangerous line but because the invisible threat they allegedly carried with them could, under the right conditions, ripple through the world’s food supply. And it all started with a fungus. Hidden in a tissue. Stashed in a backpack.