A plan to release genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in Queensland has been paused, with the organisation behind the idea withdrawing its licence application.<\/p>\n
Oxitec Australia \u2014 a partnership between Australia’s CSIRO and US biotech firm Oxitec Ltd \u2014 aimed to sell its so-called “friendly” mosquitoes to reduce the spread of diseases like dengue.<\/p>\n
The plan received backlash from scientists, health experts, and the public, but CSIRO said the step back was not due to concerns about the technology.<\/p>\n
“This decision was not related to concerns about the technology itself, rather a determination made around the early stage of the company and the necessary financial requirements of holding a licence,” a CSIRO spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oxitec Australia’s first solution was to be a “just-add-water” product using its “friendly” mosquito technology. (Supplied: Brand Aid Creative Group, Inc.)<\/p>\n
The organisation said there was “an intent” to resubmit another licence application, adding CSIRO hoped to conduct more local research first.<\/p>\n
Oxitec’s idea works by releasing male GM mosquitoes that carry a gene that kills female offspring. Since only female mosquitoes bite and spread disease, the goal was to shrink the mosquito population and cut infection rates.<\/p>\n
The company planned to bring genetically modified eggs into Australia from overseas and prepare them in mosquito rearing boxes in Queensland to release them into the environment.<\/p>\n
Trials overseas have reported major drops in mosquito numbers, and official risk assessments of the GM mosquitoes in Australia called the danger to people and the environment “negligible”.<\/p>\n
Authorities criticise project<\/p>\n
However, the One Health Special Interest Group within the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has been critical of the proposal, saying GM mosquitoes might create “wide-ranging unintended consequences”.<\/p>\n
Co-convenor Andrea Britton said the association supported the application withdrawal and would look closely at any future plans.<\/p>\n
“If a new application comes through, we’d have to look at the risk assessment of that and the data that’s presented from a public health point of view,” Dr Britton said.<\/p>\n
Her group was worried the GM program could disrupt a mosquito control system already proven to work.<\/p>\n
Queensland currently uses Wolbachia, a natural bacteria that stops mosquitoes spreading dengue, which Dr Britton said had been very successful.<\/p>\n
“There’s already a very effective multi-pronged strategy \u2026 so to invest in something else may not be a good business case or cost-effective,” she said.<\/p>\n
She also criticised the original plan, which included an intent to sell GM mosquito eggs commercially, saying there would be “no control of geographic spread”.<\/p>\n
Another concern was how GM mosquitoes could affect the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
“Fish, bats, insects are potentially eating these genetically modified mosquitoes and you need to see the effect,” Dr Britton said.<\/p>\n
University of Melbourne mosquito biologist Perran Ross said the withdrawal was the right move.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Perran Ross has been critical of the GM mosquito plan. (ABC Gardening Australia)<\/p>\n
Dr Ross said the GM mosquito strain, imported from Mexico, was never tested against Australian mosquito genetics.<\/p>\n
“The original plan was basically to release a foreign mosquito strain directly into the Australian environment,” Dr Ross said.<\/p>\n
“I thought there were a few issues with that.”<\/p>\n
Dr Ross was not opposed to genetic technology, but said Queensland did not need this type right now.<\/p>\n
“It’s certainly good to have other technologies available. In this particular case, I just don’t think there’s a need for it,” he said.<\/p>\n
CSIRO said that if Oxitec Australia resubmitted its plan, it would face strict testing by several government agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A plan to release genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in Queensland has been paused, with the organisation behind the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,52225,184977,184974,184975,137,184976],"class_list":["post-330694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dengue","tag-friendly-mosquito","tag-genetically-modified-mosquito","tag-gm-mosquito","tag-health","tag-oxitec-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}