Science & Technology
British biotech company Oxitec conducted a 27-month long experiment in 2013 Jacobina, Brazil, aimed at reducing the local mosquito population by 90 percent while preserving the genetic integrity of the local insect population.
The overall goal was to curb the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, such as yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, by releasing half a million OX513A mosquitoes. The insects are a genetically-modified version of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which combined a breed from Mexico with a breed from Cuba.
The mosquitoes were supposed to contain a dominant lethal gene that would render the first generation of future offspring infertile (while also marking them with a fluorescent green protein gene). Well, as it often does, life found a way.
"The claim was that genes from the release strain would not get into the general population because offspring would die,"said ecologist and evolutionary biologist Jeffrey Powell who conducted a recent study into the efficacy and success of the GM mosquito trial. "That obviously was not what happened."
The original Oxitec research suggested that just three to four percent of the "infertile" offspring would survive into adulthood and would be too weak to reproduce anyway. These predictions were wrong. Very wrong.
Anywhere from 10 to 60 percent of the mosquitoes analyzed by Powell and his team featured genomes tainted by OX513A. While the scheme apparently worked initially, with a dramatic reduction in the population, it would later completely backfire around the 18-month mark, returning the number of mosquitoes in the area to pre-release levels.
The female population, it turns out, opted not to mate with the weaker, genetically-modified mosquitoes anyway, in a phenomenon known as "mating discrimination," according to Powell and his team.
Some genetically-modified mosquitoes even showed signs of "hybrid vigor" in which the artificially-introduced genetic diversity actually made the mosquitoes stronger and more resilient, with the possibility of increased resistance to insecticides, Powell and his co-authors warned.
However, an Oxitec spokesperson claims the research contains "numerous false, speculative and unsubstantiated claims and statements about Oxitec's mosquito technology" claiming instead, in a three-page document, that the paper did not identify any "negative, deleterious or unanticipated effect to people or the environment from the release of OX513A mosquitoes."
Oxitec also disputes the claim about "mating discrimination" saying it has never occurred in any release of an estimated total of one billion Oxitec male mosquitoes released worldwide.
Comment: See also:
- Failed GM mosquito control experiment may have strengthened wild bugs
- Anti-GMO mosquito activist delivering petition to EPA found floating dead in DC hotel pool
- Oxitec vs The Keys: The GM mosquito debate rages on
- Oxitec finally admits major risk in technology: GM mosquitoes may increase numbers of disease carrying Asian Tiger mosquito
- Don't worry - the anti-Zika GM mosquito is safe, says the FDA
- Brazil announces dengue fever emergency in GM mosquito trials region
Reader Comments
Wow. 1 billion samples and that has never happened. That's hard work to make that absolute determination.
Or, eff it, let's just do what every other corporation does and lie our asses off when we suck and fail.
Now Antifa and other social justice warrior Gender Studies idiots will be up their ass. They don't stand a chance now. Wait until the New York Times and the Washington Post editors hear about this.
When life is creative DNA-based control is not so easy to achieve.
The above CEO. R. J. Kirk is a lawyer by training so what the article stated at the end is probably not only for the public, but also with regard to potential lawsuits against the company:
"However, an Oxitec spokesperson claims the research contains "numerous false, speculative and unsubstantiated claims and statements about Oxitec's mosquito technology" claiming instead, in a three-page document, that the paper did not identify any "negative, deleterious or unanticipated effect to people or the environment from the release of OX513A mosquitoes."
Oxitec also disputes the claim about "mating discrimination" saying it has never occurred in any release of an estimated total of one billion Oxitec male mosquitoes released worldwide." It is impressive they managed to check up on the private lives of the one billion Oxitec male mosquitoes, as if they had been bugged.