Genetically Modified Mosquitos Released into the Wild Last Year

[JBeukema]

Experts in the safety of genetically modified (GM) organisms have expressed concern over the release of GM mosquitoes into the wild on the Cayman Islands, which was publicised internationally only last month — a year after their initial release.
The trial of the OX513A strain of the dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito, developed by UK biotechnology company Oxitec, was carried out on Grand Cayman island by the Cayman Islands’ Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) in 2009, followed by a bigger release between May and October this year. Together they represent the first known release of GM mosquitoes anywhere in the world.
Unpublished results of the trials, showing that the GM male mosquitoes competed with wild males, were presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting in the United States, last week (4 November).
The male GM mosquitoes mate with normal females to produce larvae that die unless the antibiotic tetracycline is present. In tetracycline’s absence an enzyme accumulates to a toxic level, killing the larvae. The developers hope the strategy could be combined with other mosquito control methods to reduce transmission in dengue-prone areas.

Genetically Modified Mosquitos Released into the Wild Last Year | The Vigilant Citizen

 

[waltky]

US Zika epidemic is on the way...

Mosquito Season Means Zika Season, US Experts Warn
June 03, 2016 - Doctors say US Zika epidemic is on the way, and Congress has yet to provide funding to fight it

It's nearly the start of summer in the U.S. — vacation time for families and breeding time for mosquitoes, including the one that carries the Zika virus. Dr. Tom Frieden, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says much can be done to prevent the spread of Zika in the U.S., particularly in the south, if Congress would only provide the money. "We need a robust response to protect American women and reduce, to the greatest extent humanly possible, the number of families affected. We don't know who those children will be. We don't know where they will grow up, but anything we don't do now, we will regret not having done later," he said.

Severina Raimunda holds her granddaughter Melisa Vitoria, left, who was born with microcephaly and her twin brother, Edison Junior, at the IMIP hospital in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil​

Frieden and other top doctors say Zika would not be a major threat except that it causes serious birth defects, including microcephaly, which literally means "small head." "When a child is born with microcephaly, it's not because the skull was malformed, it's because the virus destroyed the brain cells, and the skull collapsed around the demolished brain," Frieden said. Some lawmakers say there's no evidence the virus will spread in the U.S. like it has in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dengue, a similar virus, has spread in the southern part of the western hemisphere, but, aside from a few cases in Florida and Texas, it has not spread from one person to another in the U.S.

‘Worst nightmare’

That's small comfort to Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and chief of the Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine. "Microcephaly," he said, "is every parent's worst nightmare." In early February, U.S. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.9 billion for emergency funds to fight Zika. Before Congress left for a spring break in late May, it had not allocated any money, although the Senate has approved $1.1 billion toward mosquito extermination and research, including the development of a vaccine, and the House has agreed to $622 million. Some congressional leaders have called the request "a slush fund."

Five-month-old Laura undergoes a medical test at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Sao Paulo, Brazil​

Frieden told reporters that a three-month delay in funding an epidemic can cause it to grow exponentially. He defended his agency's requested budget and said that, in the interim, the CDC has been forced to take money away from programs to fight Ebola in West Africa, and from the states' emergency funds that provide health services to victims of flooding and other catastrophes. Dr. Edward McCabe, medical director of the March of Dimes, told VOA, "My concern is that people won't start getting worried about Zika virus in the U.S. until we start seeing babies with microcephaly and other birth defects."

Pressing Congress

 

[Billy_Bob]

What could possibly go wrong with this?

What happens if the alteration creates a bug that morphs more quickly and becomes worse than the natural ones?

 

[Crick]

Morphs?

 

[waltky]

Fightin' fire with fire...

U.S. closer to testing engineered mosquitoes that could fight Zika
Fri Aug 5, 2016 - U.S. health regulators have cleared the way for a trial of genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida that can reduce mosquito populations, potentially offering a new tool to fight the local spread of Zika and other viruses.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that a field trial testing Intrexon Corp's (XON.N) genetically engineered mosquitoes would not have a significant impact on the environment. The announcement came as Florida officials grapple with the first cases of local Zika transmission in the continental United States. Florida health authorities have identified 16 Zika cases spread by local mosquitoes and are ramping up aerial pesticide spraying of a Miami neighborhood where all of the people are believed to have been infected. Pregnant women are most at risk from Zika, which can cause a rare birth defect in fetuses called microcephaly. The Zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil and has spread rapidly in the Americas, primarily through mosquito bite. Intrexon's Oxitec unit has been working for years to kick off a trial in the Florida Keys to assess the effectiveness of its mosquitoes to reduce levels of the insects that carry diseases, including Zika, dengue, Yellow Fever and chikungunya.

The Oxitec method involves inserting an engineered gene into male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. When they mate with female mosquitoes in the wild, they produce offspring that cannot survive to adulthood. The FDA has been reviewing Oxitec's application for use of its technology as an investigational new animal drug. Its environmental assessment helps clear the way for the company to begin a clinical trial in Key Haven, Florida that would test whether the genetically modified mosquitoes will suppress the wild populations over time. Results of that trial would be used to support approval of the company's technology, a process that could take more than a year. Similar testing in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands have shown that the Oxitec mosquitoes can reduce local Aedes aegypti populations by more than 90 percent.

'THEY ARE USING US'

To begin the trial, however, the company must first await the results of a vote in the Nov. 8 general election seeking community approval for the trial. Oxitec Chief Executive Hadyn Parry said in a conference call that the vote is non-binding, and the decision about whether to proceed is up to the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, the local body responsible for mosquito control. Community support in the vote is not guaranteed. In Key Haven, a suburb of large, waterfront homes near Key West where the trial is slated to take place, yard signs have popped up declaring "no consent" to the release of genetically modified mosquitoes. Kathryn Watkins, a Key Haven resident recruited by trial opponents, is seeking election to the board overseeing the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. "It just has everyone scared," Watkins said, adding that local residents see themselves as unwilling test subjects. "The genetically modified male has to mate with a wild female, and the wild female has to bite us in order to lay eggs," she said. "They are using us in this trial without consent," she added.

As his company awaits the vote, Parry said he intends to ask the FDA for an emergency-use authorization that would make the product available to help battle Zika in the United States. The FDA has approved several diagnostic products under this designation. But it is not likely to be granted under current statutes. FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman said there is no "fast-track" designation for new animal drugs, and emergency-use provisions in the applicable law do not apply to animal drugs. The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency over Zika's link to microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems. The agency has suggested that alternative approaches to fighting mosquitoes that carry the virus might be an important way to suppress mosquito populations.

U.S. closer to testing engineered mosquitoes that could fight Zika