###BASE_URL###

GE mosquitoes on the Cayman Islands

compilation of all relevant GENET-news from the Cayman Islands

GENET-news articles on GE mosquitoes

click here to read all news on GE mosquitoes

GE mosquitoes in Malaysia

click here to read news on GE mosquitoes from Malaysia only

2016-07-19 |

Cayman Islands: Court suspends release of GMO mosquitoes

A plan to fight the mosquito that spreads Zika and other illnesses by releasing genetically modified versions of the insect in the Cayman Islands has been put on hold following a court challenge.

2012-09-14 |

Four in five dengue mosquitoes died in Cayman trial

Genetically modified mosquitoes released by U.K. biotechnology start-up Oxitec Ltd. wiped out 80 percent of the bugs that carry dengue in a Cayman Islands study, according to a report today in the journal Nature Biotechnology. More than 3 million of the male mosquitoes, members of the Aedes aegypti species that carries dengue, were released in a trial that closely held Oxitec and the Mosquito Research and Control Unit on Grand Cayman conducted in a 16-hectare (39.5-acre) area in 2010. At the end of 23 weeks, mosquito numbers had dwindled by four-fifths in the treated area of the site, compared with the untreated area, the researchers reported.

2012-02-03 |

GM mosquito release not transparent, say German scientists

A group of independent scientists say that the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands, Malaysia and Brazil was not sufficiently transparent or properly regulated which risks undermining the research of what they say is promising technology. The German scientists published a paper on Monday based on their analysis of the insect release which found a deficit in the scientific quality of regulatory documents and a general absence of accurate experimental descriptions available to the public before the release started.

2012-01-16 |

GE mosquitoes didn’t persist says Cayman Islands control unit

Fears that genetically modified mosquitoes had bred and produced surviving offspring in the local population of insects are unfounded the director of Cayman’s Mosquito Research & Control Unit has said. [...] “We monitored the mosquito population very thoroughly for several months after the pilot study was conducted, and found an initial reduction in the population of around 80 percent,” Petrie said. “This suppression of the population was sustained for some considerable time. These data refute any allegation that the released mosquitoes persisted in the environment.”

2012-01-12 |

Cayman’s ”sterile” GM mosquitoes could have reproduced

The genetically modified mosquitoes released in the Cayman Islands over a year ago as part of a research study on the eradication of dengue fever by the UK-based company Oxitec could have reproduced and mixed in with the local population. According to a redacted document released to GeneWatch UK following a freedom of information request in Britain, the genetically modified pests, which the manufacturer described as sterile, did produce offspring around 15 percent of which survived. During the study the GM mozzies were fed cat food containing chicken contaminated with low levels of tetracycline, which allowed the mosquitoes to reproduce with their offspring surviving to adulthood.

2011-11-01 |

Concerns are raised about genetically engineered mosquitoes

Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.
The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria. But the research is arousing concern about possible unintended effects on public health and the environment, because once genetically modified insects are released, they cannot be recalled.

2010-12-15 |

Cayman GE mosquito release was act of ”colonialism”

A UK not-for-profit public interest group has criticized the British scientists that released three million genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes on Grand Cayman this year. GeneWatch said that the use of an overseas territory without public consultation for such an experiment was an act of colonialism. The organisation, which investigates how genetic technologies will impact food, health, agriculture, environment and society, said Oxitec had misleadingly claimed the mosquitoes released in Cayman were sterile and that there was no ethical oversight before using Cayman for the trials.

2010-11-26 |

The 2009 announcement of a GE mosquito trial on Cayman Islands

The Mosquito Research and Control Unit is considering using genetically-modified Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes to prevent dengue fever in the Cayman Islands. Director of MRCU Bill Petrie said a final decision had not been made on the project, but it is essentially a new spin on an old technique, where males alone are released. [...] 'We already have genetically-modified livestock and crops in the Cayman Islands and whereas we consume these products, this will not be the case with the mosquitoes and as such, it is quite a different situation,' said the director.

2010-11-22 |

No opposition to secretive GE mosquito trials on Cayman Islands

Oxitec had hoped to launch its first dengue fever field trial in Malaysia, but that plan has been held up by regulatory problems and criticism from some anti-GM campaigners. [...] The delay enabled the Cayman Islands, where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes arrived in 2002, to get in first. “We had no opposition,” says Angela Harris of the Cayman Islands Mosquito Research and Control Unit. “The people living in the trial area were very pleased.”

2010-11-17 |

GE mosquito trials ”well-known within the island’s population of 50,000” - but not by the Cayman News Service

Luke Alphey, chief scientific officer of Oxitec, says he "completely rejects" the notion that there was anything secretive about the trial, which was well-known within the island's population of 50,000, he says [...] Although there were no town hall meetings or public debates, MRCU sent information about the study to local newspapers. MRCU also posted a promotional video about the project on YouTube, but the clip does not mention that the mosquitoes are transgenic.

go to page: 1 2

Home: GENET