I have heard of people who have severe allergies..........scientific experiments get out of hand with alarming results.

I have heard of people who have severe allergies to insect bites. A very good friend claims that bee stings can kill him. I laughed until I saw a documentary on killer bees.

In 1963, a Brazilian farmer went to the rescue of his dog and two horses when a swarm of bees suddenly attacked them. The farmer died when the bees turned on him instead. The horses also died.

Two years later, a Brazilian teacher slapped a bee that had stung her outside the school. In a few minutes thousands of bees appeared and swarmed around her. She ran, tripped and fell. There were many witnesses but no one could help her. The Fire Department was called and even when high pressure hoses were used the bees stayed. Then someone suggested using fire. The firemen used flaming torches. This worked but when the firemen finally got to the teacher, they found that she was dead.

Then in 1977, the National Geographic Society sponsored an expedition to South America to study the killer bees. The report was shocking. The bees were once confined only to Brazil in South America, but there is now evidence that these bees are now moving northwards. They are now in Mexico and the southern states of the United States of America. Scientists have even calculated that the bees are moving at the rate of about 320 kilometers a year. While this piece of information may have alarmed some people living in the southern states, nothing serious involving killer bees has happened yet.

Not many people are aware that the killer bee is actually the result of a scientific experiment. Dr Warwick Kerr, a specialist who specializes in breeding insects, had been invited by the Brazilian government to produce a bee that would produce more honey and that would be better adapted to tropical climates. Dr Kerr's plan was to cross the gentle European bee with the African bee. The African bee was stronger, bigger, fiercer and produced more honey. The intended result of cross-breeding was to create a strong and productive honey bee that was calm and gentle.

The initial results were encouraging. The new Africanized bee produced twice as much honey. However, they did not inherit the European bee's gentle nature. In fact they were even more aggressive than the original African bee.

Kerr realized this and tried immediately to correct his mistake. He gave instructions to his assistants to isolate the new bees. Unfortunately, a beekeeper accidentally released 26 vicious queen bees. It did not take long for the queens to interbreed with local bees and the results were devastating. In only ten years, 90 per cent of all new bees in South America were found to be descended from Africanized honey bees.

Stories such as this make us wonder about experiments with animals and plants. On one hand, we want to make progress. We want to improve crop yields and make crops more resistant to disease. On the other hand, you have incidents like this where scientific experiments get out of hand with alarming results.

Summary: In 1963, a Brazilian farmer went to help his dog and two horses which were attacked by a swarm of bees. The bees killed him and the horses, In 1965, a swarm attacked a teacher. The Fire Department used water hoses and then flaming torches but the teacher was killed. A study showed that the Brazilian killer bee was moving northwards towards Mexico. This bee was actually the result of a scientific experiment by Dr William Kerr a bee specialist. Kerr had been invited to create a more productive honey bee. He crossed the gentle European bee with the productive African bee, but the cross proved very aggressive. The isolated bees were accidentally released and ten years later, 90 per cent of South American bees were descended from Africanized honey bees.