GMO Mosquitoes Heading to the Florida Keys

Insecticide has been the method of operation in the Florida Keys for many years, to exterminate an army of insects and specifically the “mother of all pests, the mosquito”.

Over time, however, Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that can spread the dengue fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses has built up resistance to many of the insecticides used to kill them.

Thus to counter the resistance, a genetically modified mosquito is primed for a Florida invasion to help do away with the mosquitoes.

Pressure has mounted to speed up testing after the arrival of the Zika virus, which is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, in the U.S. and Florida. While no cases have been contracted locally, health officials fear South Florida could face an outbreak. Oxitec’s genetically modified mosquitoes have already been released in South America, where health officials say an ongoing Zika outbreak could infect 4 million people by the end of the year. The virus is tied to a host of health problems, possibly including a spike in babies born with microcephaly in Brazil.

Oxitec, the company responsible for the genetically modified mosquitoes, has a lab ready in Marathon for production and will be able to move very quickly should the local officials in the Keys, give the go ahead.

Not everyone is convinced that this is safest way to deal with Zika infested mosquitoes.

“People just don’t want to be guinea pigs,” said former nurse and real estate agent Mila De Mier, who started the petition.

Pitched as a safer, more affordable way of battling Oxitec’s modified male mosquitoes are engineered to produce offspring with a kill-switch, or defective gene that kills them. The offspring also bear a florescent marker gene so larvae can be identified when inspectors conduct mosquito counts and gauge the progress of the program.

De Mier, however, say no tests have linked the release of mosquitoes to a reduction in disease and argues that other methods used by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District to combat Aedes aegypti have been successful. She also likens the tests to clinical trials and believes Oxitec ethically needs to obtain permission from residents.

For example, would the more virulent Asian tiger mosquito, which is also a carrier of dengue, “fill the void” left by a drop in Aedes aegypti populations? Or will the dengue virus mutate and become even more deadly?

“I think the science is fine, they definitely can kill mosquitoes, but the GMO issue still sticks as something of a thorny issue for the general public,” Phil Lounibos, a researcher at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, told AP.

“I’m on their side, in that consequences are highly unlikely. But to say that there’s no genetically modified DNA that might get into a human, that’s kind of a gray matter.”

Oxitec spokeswoman Chris Creese said the experiment will be similar in size to one held in 2012 in the Cayman Islands, where 3.3 million genetically modified mosquitoes were set loose over a six- month period, resulting in the elimination of 96 percent of the targeted insects, AP quoted.

Source: Miami Herald  Truth and Action