US airport authorities foil traveler's attempt to bring illegal item to study at girlfriend's lab: 'It's already causing a lot of problems'

Two travelers from China were accused of smuggling after bringing a dangerous fungus into the U.S.

What's happening?

According to the BBC, Zunyong Liu brought Fusarium graminearum with him when he flew into Detroit. He was allegedly bringing it to study at the University of Michigan, where his girlfriend, Yunqing Jian, worked at a lab.

They were formally charged with "conspiracy, smuggling goods, … false statements, and visa fraud," per the Eastern District of Michigan's U.S. Attorney's Office.

Why could this fungus be a threat?

A February 2020 study published in Microorganisms stated that Fusarium graminearum causes "Fusarium head blight (FHB), one of the most economically important diseases of wheat, barley, rice and other grain crops worldwide."

When this fungus spreads, it causes food shortages. If people ingest F. graminearum, it can increase the risk of cancer and cause vomiting, headaches, and dizziness. 

This fungus also spreads more easily when temperatures are high.

As median temperatures climb around the globe, more fungi like F. graminearum will spread and threaten our food supply chains. And when plants become infected with fungi, ecosystems and the planet suffer.

Because of all this, the U.S. Attorney's Office stated that scientific literature calls F. graminearum a "potential agroterrorism weapon."

What's being done about F. graminearum?

Of the fungus that Jian studied, Harold Kistler, an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, told CBS News, "It's extremely prevalent in North America. It likely arose in North America, so it's not like a foreign agent coming in. And it's already causing a lot of problems in U.S. agriculture."

"We're not talking about something that just got imported from China," Caitlyn Allen, a professor emeritus of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said to ABC News. "People should not be freaking out."

Another professor emeritus of plant pathology, Gary Bergstrom, also spoke to ABC News about the threat level posed by the samples. In order for this to be called "an agroterrorism threat," he said prosecutors would have to prove that the F. graminearum samples are "more aggressive than local strains."

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