Experts doubt FBI's claim that crop fungus smuggled by Chinese students is a threat

Source: Reuters

Experts doubt FBI’s claim that crop fungus smuggled by Chinese students is a threat

Heather Schlitz
Fri, June 6, 2025 at 1:47 PM EDT 3 min read

CHICAGO (Reuters) -A biological sample that a Chinese researcher was accused of smuggling into the United States and that prosecutors cast as a "dangerous biological pathogen" is a common type of fungus already widespread in U.S. crop fields that likely poses little risk to food safety, experts said.

On Tuesday, U.S. federal prosecutors accused two Chinese researchers of smuggling samples of the fungus Fusarium graminearum into the U.S., describing it as a potential agricultural terrorism weapon.

Yunqing Jian, 33, a researcher at the University of Michigan's Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology has been charged in connection with allegations that she helped her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, smuggle the pathogen into the U.S.

However, agriculture experts interviewed by Reuters this week said the fungus has been in the U.S. for more than a century, can be prevented by spraying pesticides, and is only dangerous if ingested regularly and in large quantities.

"As a weapon, it would be a pretty ineffective one," ...

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