Can GMO Mosquitoes Save You From Dengue?

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/04/genetically-engineered-mosquitoes-oxitec

To combat dengue fever, a biotech firm unleashes genetically engineered bloodsuckers. What could possibly go wrong?

—By Kiera Butler | May/June 2012 Issue




In August 2009, a 34-year-old woman from Rochester, New York, went to her doctor complaining of flulike symptoms. The doc ordered some blood tests, which came back positive for dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus that can cause serious illness and sometimes death­—a baffling diagnosis, since the woman hadn't recently traveled anyplace where dengue is endemic. She had, however, been to Key West, where, in the months that followed, more tourists and residents were diagnosed. Thus began Florida's first significant dengue outbreak since 1934. Some scientists postulated that climate change has made the region more hospitable to Aedes aegypti, the primary species known to spread the virus.

The agency in charge of mosquito control for the Keys responded by blanketing the city with pesticides targeting both larvae and adult mosquitoes. Even so, the outbreak lasted for 15 months and sickened 93 people. While there hasn't been a new case since November 2010, local leaders aren't eager to relive the nightmare. And now they figure they won't have to, thanks to a recent high-tech innovation: self-destructing mosquitoes.

These specialized skeeters, developed by the British company Oxitec, are genetically engineered to need the antibiotic tetracycline—common in the lab but scant in the wild—in order to survive past the larval stage. The altered males mate with wild females and presto: Lacking tetracycline to feed on, their offspring die before they're old enough to bite.

So far, Oxitec has teamed up with local officials and released its critters in Brazil, Malaysia, and the Cayman Islands—where the company claims an 80 percent decline in the Aedes aegypti population over three months. Mosquito control wonks everywhere were impressed. Oxitec's method can cost less than spraying, never mind the nasty chemicals: Key West would pay $200,000 to $400,000 a year for eggs versus $800,000 for the pesticides. Oxitec CEO Hadyn Parry, a former employee of the agribusiness giant Syngenta, sees his company's product as a humanitarian triumph. "We want to make this as widely available as we can," he says.

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