Biopirates Selling Genetic Samples Extracted from Blood of Brazilian Indigenous Tribe

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"Brazilian gov't probes into online trade of genetic samples"
http://www.chinaview.cn 2004-10-03 12:41:23
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/03/content_2048782.htm

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The Brazilian government has
investigated the presumed sale of genetic samples of Brazilian Indians
through the Internet, local press reported on Saturday.

President of state-run National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai),
Mercio Pereira, has requested the federal police to investigate the
case and the Foreign Ministry to take measures in view of the severity
of the situation.

Company Coriel Cell, a US biotechnological firm, offered through its
Internet site, genetic samples extracted from the blood of Karitiana
and Surui Indians in the Brazil's Amazonian state of Rondonia, at a
price of 85 US dollars, Funai said.

Leaders of the tribes admitted that some Brazilian and foreign
researchers came to their villages years ago and collected blood from
at least half of the 350 individuals living in their communities, Funai
added.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry was reportedly to have asked its
diplomats in Washington to take measures to force the company to remove
the mentioned information from the website.

Coriel Cell was accused in 1996 of offering a sample of genetic
material of other Indian communities in Brazil.

Currently, some 700,000 Indians of 255 different ethnic groups,with 180
different languages, live in Brazil.


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