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Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the Florida Keys if British researchers win approval to use the bugs against two extremely painful viral diseases. Never before have insects with modified DNA come so close to being set loose in a residential U.S. neighborhood. "This is essentially using a mosquito as a drug to cure disease," said Michael Doyle, executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, which is waiting to hear if the Food and Drug Administration will allow the experiment.
Dengue and chikungunya are growing threats in the U.S., but some people are more frightened at the thought of being bitten by a genetically modified organism. More than 130,000 signed a Change.org petition against the experiment.
Even potential boosters say those responsible must do more to show that benefits outweigh the risks. "I think the science is fine, they definitely can kill mosquitoes, but the GMO [Genetically Modified Organism] issue still sticks as something of a thorny issue for the general public," said Phil Lounibos, who studies mosquito control at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory. "It's not even so much about the science—you can't go ahead with something like this if public opinion is negative."
[More after the break.]
The article goes on to report that the disease is carried by Aedes aegypti, a tiger-striped invader whose biting females spread these viruses. This mosquito is working its way north and Key West is particularly vulnerable. All it would take for an outbreak is for a few visitors to the area to get bit by these mosquitoes which would then become hosts and spread the disease through out the area.
There are no vaccines or cures for dengue, ... or chikungunya, which causes painful contortions. ... dengue sickens 50 million people annually worldwide and kills 2.5 percent of the half-million who get severe cases, according to the World Health Organization. Chikungunya has already overwhelmed hospitals and harmed economies across the Caribbean after infecting a million people in the region last year.
Key West is under continual spraying to try and suppress this species, but the cost is high and the pesticides are becoming less and less effective. The hope is that these GMO mosquitoes would breed with the locals and kill off the offspring and lead to their eradication. Problematically, the males (which do not bite) are selected by hand for release and the potential exists for females to be released as well.
Enter Oxitec, a British biotech firm launched by Oxford University researchers. They patented a method of breeding Aedes aegypti with fragments of proteins from the herpes simplex virus and E. coli bacteria as well as genes from coral and cabbage. This synthetic DNA has been used in thousands of experiments without harming lab animals, but it is fatal to the bugs, killing mosquito larvae before they can fly or bite.
[...] FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman said no field tests will be allowed until the agency has "thoroughly reviewed all the necessary information."
[...]"What Oxitec is trying to spin is that it's highly improbable that there will be negative consequences of this foreign DNA entering someone that's bitten by an Oxitec mosquito," said Lounibos, "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."
http://phys.org/news/2015-01-millions-gmo-insects-loose-florida.html
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 25 2015, @11:17PM
What are the possible consequences of releasing a genetically modified mosquito into an ecosystem?
I think the science is fine, they definitely can kill mosquitoes
If you kill all mosquitoes in the Florida Keys, are you then going to starve other animals that eat the mosquito? then what about the animals that eat those?
What about if you starve an animal that eats mosquitoes that also happens to eat other pests that might be harmful to humans or crops?
http://www.endangeredspeciesinternational.org/insects4.html [endangeredspeciesinternational.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mrchew1982 on Monday January 26 2015, @12:13AM
Not even remotely likely to happen because this is an *invasive species* that is not native to the area. The normal mosquitoes will still be there to feed the fish and the birds and bite you, don't worry!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 26 2015, @12:36AM
How long have they been invading? Have they damaged the local species beyond the point of recovery? Given enough time an invasive species becomes a critical component of the invaded ecosystem because it has overrun the previous inhabitant of the same niche. How do we know that another invasive species that carries the same disease won't fill the void instead? [plos.org]
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Monday January 26 2015, @01:05AM
In the case of Florida, since 1986. However, while they are found fairly widespread today, they have not displaced native species. If you've ever visited Florida, it's pretty clear there's enough room for basically all of the mosquitoes.
If we eliminated the species entirely, the native species would simply fill in the gap. And they don't carry terrible diseases with significant mortality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 26 2015, @01:24AM
> If you've ever visited Florida, it's pretty clear there's enough room for basically all of the mosquitoes.
You did not just say that.
Also, seems clear you didn't read the linked study about asian tiger mosquitos.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday January 26 2015, @02:38AM
Something I noticed when I lived where there were few mosquitoes (so the population was easy to observe) -- the net total of crane flies and mosquitoes was constant. So when there were few mosquitoes, there were lots of crane flies, and v.v. (Guess which one I preferred.) We also got more swallows and other birds when the crane flies were dominant.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Monday January 26 2015, @12:16AM
The mosquito species targeted here is a non-native mosquito. The released mosquitoes are of that same species. There is zero chance you could kill all mosquitoes in the Keys. The goal is to kill the invaders, which are vectors for terrible diseases.
(Score: 1) by gnuman on Monday January 26 2015, @04:38AM
What are the possible consequences of releasing a genetically modified mosquito into an ecosystem?
I think the problem could be more apparent with using pesticides than trying to eradicate one mosquito species. There are dozens and dozens of different mosquito species. They do not interbreed. Some don't carry diseases, other are pathogenic heavens. Like the TseTse fly, some subspecies could be eradicated without affecting the foodchain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsetse_fly [wikipedia.org]
An alternative is to develop a vaccine for the diseases these things carry.
Now, if they were trying to exterminate all mosquitoes, like with pesticide campaigns, that would indeed have a large impact on the ecosystem. But single species, it's almost always insignificant. The other mosquitoes will quickly fill in the void.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 26 2015, @07:13PM
I'm in Florida. We don't use pesticides to control the mosquito population: we build municipal bat houses. I'm not even kidding. In the aggregate, our town's bats eat tons (literally) of insects every night.
I've lived here in the middle of the swamp for six years and have never been bitten by a mosquito. The bats are effective little predators.