GM Mosquito Issue Wins Resident Approval but Makes Slow Progress
Aedes aegypti is the “cockroach of the mosquito world,” with no place in the food chain and no purpose except to carry the dengue fever potentially deadly to humans, asserted Michael Doyle, executive director of Florida Keys Mosquito Control.
That variety of mosquito is actually lower than the local cockroach, which at least sometimes serves as food for chickens. Other varieties of mosquito are similarly useful. “The salt marsh mosquito has a purpose in the world,” Doyle continued. “Birds can eat them.” The aageis egyptii, on the other hand, “spends its whole life avoiding the food chain. It lives near and in houses . . . and if it gets in the house, it will stay for generations, a real homebody.” These mosquitoes are also “bottom feeders,” typically biting ankles.
Current anti-mosquito activity centers on larvaecides; they cannot spray for adults because that spray also kills butterflies, he said. Genetic modification and/or the use of bacteria to sterilize male mosquitoes could eliminate the potentially dangerous pests without a threat to other wildlife.
GM mosquitoes are not the same as GM crops, Doyle stressed. “In crops, genetic modification creates mutations that strengthen the plant; in this case it’s the opposite: it puts mosquitoes at a lethal disadvantage. They’ll kill themselves off within a few generations.”
Doyle attributed the opposition to GM aedess aegypti to “anti-science attitudes out there” – but in fact Key Haven residents, when surveyed in anticipation of testing that would involve release of the genetically modified males, were generally positive about the process. Of substantial surveying of residents done March 18 through May 17, 2013, 59 supported or strongly supported the use of GM (or GE, for genetically engineered) mosquitoes. When asked about the danger vs. safety of using of GM mosquitoes, a very substantial 78 percent rated them safe or very safe.
In a survey done in Key West January 1-5, 2013, a whopping 99 percent stated that mosquito control was important or very important, with 66 percent believing that genetic engineering is safe or very safe and 60 percent supporting its local use.
For a full report of the surveys, consult Mosquito Control’s website at keysmosquito.org.
Currently, however, there is no movement on the GM mosquito front, according to Coleen Fitzsimmons, Mosquito Control spokesperson. Trial introductions have been proposed to the FDA, which is to do an environmental assessment, after which “permits can take years.” The FDA is assessing risk, but “we don’t see that there’s a risk,” she said. “It’s a win-win situation.”
Of course in some cases there is little to no chance of appealing to reason. This writer actually heard one man claim that serilizing male mosquitos was unfair to the females. “Here they think everything’s OK but they’ll never have babies,” he lamented. Doyle clarified that females would still lay eggs, much as chickens do in the absence of roosters, but those eggs will not produce more mosquitoes, and female mosquitoes do not linger nearby to raise their young.
A friend listening in on the interview with Doyle laughed, asking, “You fix your dogs and cats, don’t you?”
There has not been a reported case of dengue fever in Monroe County since 2010. Worldwide, however, according to the World Health Organization, “the number of reported cases has continued to increase. In 2010, 1.6 million cases of dengue were reported in the Americas alone, of which 49 000 cases were severe dengue.” In 2013, cases have been reported in Florida and Yunnan province of China, WHO reports. “An estimated 500 000 people with severe dengue require hospitalization each year, a large proportion of whom are children. About 2.5% of those affected die.”
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What is the question here? Do it! I have Dengue; if the powers that be felt the pain there would be no decision.
“Genetic modification and/or the use of bacteria to sterilize male mosquitoes could eliminate the potentially dangerous pests without a threat to other wildlife.” Pretty bold statement, if you ask me. And we know this,how??? Studies done by the company that stands to make financial gain on it’s product??? To everything there is an equal and opposite reaction. We do not know WHAT the long-term effects will be. As mnute as the remains of the dead mosquitos may be, they get eaten by other species and work up the food chain eventually. To deny that basic fact is what puts the ecosytsem in peril.
To say that there are no risks in releasing GE Mosquitoes into the wild is simply irresponsible, and “anti-science thinking.” In fact, at this time no one knows, or can know what the unintended consequences are. I find members of Mosquito Control spouting their opinions as fact, and in favor of such a plan, when even the FDA has yet to state their findings to be reckless and dangerous.