Millions of GMO insects could be released in Florida Keys
Jan 25, 8:24 PM EST
Millions of GMO insects could be released in Florida Keys
By JENNIFER KAY Associated Press
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) -- 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 people signed a Change.org
petition against the experiment.
Even potential boosters say those responsible must do
more to show that benefits outweigh the risks of breeding modified insects that
could bite people.
"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," said Phil Lounibos, who studies mosquito control
at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory.
Mosquito controllers say they're running out of options.
With climate change and globalization spreading tropical diseases farther from
the equator, storm winds, cargo ships and humans carry these viruses to places
like Key West, the southernmost city in the continental U.S.
There are no vaccines or cures for dengue, known as
"break-bone fever," or chikungunya, so painful it causes contortions.
U.S. cases remain rare.
Insecticides are sprayed year-round in the Keys' charming
and crowded neighborhoods. But Aedes aegypti, whose biting females spread these
diseases, have evolved to resist four of the six insecticides used to kill them.
Enter Oxitec, a British biotech firm that patented a
method of breeding Aedes aegypti with fragments of genes from the herpes
simplex virus and E. coli bacteria as well as coral and cabbage. This synthetic
DNA is commonly used in laboratory science and is thought to pose no
significant risks to other animals, but it kills mosquito larvae.
Oxitec's lab workers manually remove modified females,
aiming to release only males, which don't bite for blood like females do. The
modified males then mate with wild females whose offspring die, reducing the
population.
Oxitec has built a breeding lab in Marathon and hopes to
release its mosquitoes in a Key West neighborhood this spring.
FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman said no field tests will
be allowed until the agency has "thoroughly reviewed all the necessary
information."
Company spokeswoman Chris Creese said the test will be
similar in size to Oxitec's 2012 experiment in the Cayman Islands, where 3.3
million modified mosquitoes were released over six months, suppressing 96
percent of the targeted bugs. Oxitec says a later test in Brazil also was
successful, and both countries now want larger-scale projects.
But critics accused Oxitec of failing to obtain informed
consent in the Caymans, saying residents weren't told they could be bitten by a
few stray females overlooked in the lab.
Instead, Oxitec said only non-biting males would be
released, and that even if humans were somehow bitten, no genetically modified
DNA would enter their bloodstream.
Neither claim is entirely true, outside observers say.
"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," said Lounibos.
Creese says Oxitec has now released 70 million of its
mosquitoes in several countries and received no reports of human impacts caused
by bites or from the synthetic DNA, despite regulatory oversight that
encourages people to report any problems. "We are confident of the safety
of our mosquito, as there's no mechanism for any adverse effect on human
health. The proteins are non-toxic and non-allergenic," she said.
Oxitec should still do more to show that the synthetic
DNA causes no harm when transferred into humans by its mosquitoes, said Guy
Reeves, a molecular geneticist at Germany's Max Planck Institute.
Key West resident Marilyn Smith wasn't persuaded after
Oxitec's presentation at a public meeting. She says neither disease has had a
major outbreak yet in Florida, so "why are we being used as the
experiment, the guinea pigs, just to see what happens?"
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Follow Jennifer Kay on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jnkay .
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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