Genetically Modified Mosquitoes May Be Set Loose In Florida

As if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wasn’t upsetting non-GMO activists enough already with its approvals of GM crops, it may now approve genetically modified mosquitoes from British biotech firm Oxitec. The goal is to combat the spread of the alarmingly painful and incurable chikungunya virus and dengue fever (a/k/a “break-bone fever”).

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“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, ” reports AP.

However, as Smithsonian Magazine describes it, even putting aside the risk of the genetic modification, this is hardly a perfect solution:

…Oxitec has focused their efforts on dengue and had some success in small-scale fieldwork in Brazil and the Cayman Islands. And in April 2014, an Oxitec trial led by the Gorgas Institute in Panama released 60,000 genetically modified A. aegypti mosquitoes in the Arraiján district, west of Panama City. By October, they saw a reduction of more than 90 percent in the local mosquito population in Panama, according to unpublished results from Oxitec.

But Miller and Loaiza’s modeling points to the possibility that Asian tiger mosquitoes could replace A. aegypti in areas where GM programs have killed off the local population of other species. Evidence from the southeastern U.S. suggests that’s what happened when Asian tiger mosquitoes invaded the area. They also suggest that wild A. aegypti populations from elsewhere might be able to reinvade these areas themselves.

Either scenario could aid the spread of chikungunya in Panama and facilitate future outbreaks of dengue. “In this particular case, where you’ve got two mosquitoes that can do the same thing, but the GM approach is only going to affect one of them, it doesn’t make sense at all,” says Miller. Panama’s first case of chikungunya popped up around the same time as the GM trial, but the researchers chalk that up to pure coincidence.

GM mosquito proponents argue that reintroduction is a problem all around. “Any vector-control effort would need to guard against re-introduction. This is not a feature or disadvantage of any particular approach,” says Luke Alphey, who studies vector-borne viral diseases at the Pirbight Institute in the U.K. Plus, Oxitec has been working on a genetically modified Asian tiger mosquito, though it hasn’t been tested in the field yet.

The success of a GM mosquito disease control program may come down to which mosquito is better at transmitting the disease to humans, and that’s complicated. Asian tiger mosquitoes may be better at sustaining the viruses outside of outbreaks and at spreading specific strains. Those strains haven’t made it to this side of the Atlantic yet. Instead, A. aegypti mosquitoes are best suited to carrying the strain that’s floating around the Caribbean at the moment. “Based on what we currently know about disease transmission of chikungunya, aegypti is to be more feared than albopictus,” says Lounibos. Evidence suggests that the same is true for dengue…

…Genetic engineering might prove more successful if the circumstances were different, perhaps in conjunction with other weapons in the mosquito-fighting arsenal. Whatever happens, it’s clear that both species deserve a watchful eye. If we’re not careful, the Asian tiger mosquito could help elevate chikungunya to a much more widespread public health threat.

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