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GENET-news articles on GE mosquitoes

compilation of all relevant GENET-news articles

GE mosquitoes in Malaysia

click here to read news on GE mosquitoes from Malaysia only

GE mosquitoes on the Cayman Islands

click to read news on GE mosqitoes from the Cayman Islands only

2012-07-11 |

Florida Keys (USA) residents resist release of dengue fever-immune GM mosquitoes

A British company that has developed a genetically modified mosquito to resist the spread of dengue fever is coming up against growing opposition to a plan to release the insects into the Florida Keys. A Change.org petition started by a woman in Key West opposing the release has garnered almost 90,000 signatures and rising. “Say no to genetically modified mosquitoes release,” the petition demands. Mila de Mier, the author of the petition, began the campaign because she said she was worried about the lack of scientific understanding of what the insects could do to the delicate ecosystem of the Florida Keys. She accused Oxitec, the UK-based biotech firm that has developed the mosquito, of failing to listen to local wishes.

2012-07-10 |

Trials move forward in Brazil with transgenic mozzies to combat dengue

On Saturday 7 July 2012 Moscamed formally opened their new facility, which will enable production of Oxitec’s mosquitoes to be scaled up to an initial level sufficient for a town of approximately 50,000 people. [...] Dr Margareth Capurro of the University of Sao Paulo, who is leading the project, said; “After a long period of contained evaluation work, we started a series of releases in Brazil in February 2011 in the outdoor environment. Then, from December 2011 we commenced a suppression trial [...] Comparing the area of release to the adjacent area where no releases were made, we have reduced the population of Aedes aegypti by 85%. We are very excited by the result’

2012-07-09 |

Brazil breeds Oxitec’s GE mosquitoes to fight dengue

Brazilian authorities have inaugurated a breeder for a genetically modified type of aedes aegypti mosquito in hopes of finding a more effective way to combat dengue, of which over 430,000 cases have been registered this year nationwide. The so-called “mosquito factory” was built at a cost of 1.7 million reais ($850,000) and financed by the government of Bahia state with the help of the health ministry. [...] The laboratory inaugurated Saturday will breed 4 million mosquitoes a year, which the authorities plan to let loose in the future in a medium-sized city in order to test the real impact of the experiment based on techniques already tried out by English scientists.

2012-06-12 |

GM mosquitoes: Flying through the regulatory gaps?

In December 2010, 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes were released in my country, Malaysia. This followed releases of large numbers of mosquitoes engineered with the same modification—a dominant lethal gene—in the Cayman Islands, where over 3.3 million GM mosquitoes were released in 2009 and 2010. Since February 2011, more than 3 million of these mosquitoes were released in the city of Juaziero in northeastern Brazil. The release of these same mosquitoes is currently being considered in the Florida Keys in the United States. Many other countries are reportedly evaluating the GM mosquitoes for laboratory research and possible future field releases.

2012-05-09 |

GE mosquito release in Florida (USA) on indefinite hold

Mosquito Control’s plan to release genetically altered mosquitoes in Key West as a way to reduce the chances of a dengue-fever recurrence remain on indefinite hold. “At this point, I expect it will be a long time before anything happens,” Doyle said. “Nothing has changed.” The controversial program “will only take place once all necessary regulatory and ethical approvals have been obtained, from regulatory agencies at both federal and state level, based on the results of independent, rigorous, scientific review,” the district says in a statement. So far, no government agency has agreed to oversee the approval process. “There has been absolute silence from Washington, D.C.,” Doyle said. “If anybody up there is looking at it, I don’t know about it.”

2012-05-03 |

Mosquitoes shoot blanks in scientist’s air war on dengue

U.K. biotechnology start-up Oxitec Ltd. wants to start U.S. tests of a new weapon in the war on dengue fever: genetically modifying mosquitoes that carry the disease so that their progeny self-destruct. [...] Oxitec’s efforts are part of a broader push to rein in dengue. Novartis AG of Basel, Switzerland, is researching antiviral medicines and has shelved one that caused side effects in dogs. French drugmaker Sanofi has a dengue vaccine candidate in final testing, and it may be available as early as 2015. The company says the vaccine may generate as much as 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in annual sales. Until a vaccine or medicine is approved, mosquito control is the only way to limit infections.

2012-04-20 |

U.S. groups call on Governor to protect Floridians and block release of unregulated, risky GE mosquitoes

Today consumer and environmental groups sent a letter to Florida Governor Rick Scott to encourage him to prevent the experimental release of British biotechnology company Oxitec’s genetically engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. [...] ”South Florida’s environmentally sensitive landscape already endures many exotic and invasive species,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. ”The proposed open-air release of millions of unregulated, experimental insects into the Florida Keys opens a Pandora’s box that cannot easily be sealed.”

2012-04-20 |

U.S. researchers test GE female mosquitoes unable to fly in Mexico

Anthony James [...] a microbiologist at the University of California, Irvine [...] and his team just ended a year-long experiment in southern Mexico. They tested an engineered gene that renders female mosquitoes — the gender that transmits dengue through bites — harmless by making them unable to fly. [...] With no international regulations or guidelines governing trials of ”transgenic” organisms, the field can seem a controversial free-for-all. […..] ”We then get this weird situation where Oxitec does a release and now people are taking it seriously,” James, 60, says in a phone interview. ”We’ve been trying to get people to listen to us for a long, long time.”
Still, James says Oxitec didn’t do enough to involve Grand Cayman residents. ”We would never do it that way,” he says.

2012-04-19 |

U.S. groups call on Governor to protect Floridians and block release of unregulated, risky GE mosquitoes

Today consumer and environmental groups sent a letter to Florida Governor Rick Scott to encourage him to prevent the experimental release of British biotechnology company Oxitec’s genetically engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. [...] ”South Florida’s environmentally sensitive landscape already endures many exotic and invasive species,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. ”The proposed open-air release of millions of unregulated, experimental insects into the Florida Keys opens a Pandora’s box that cannot easily be sealed.”

2012-04-13 |

Mosquito control in the Florida Keys

Michael Doyle, who recently moved to the Florida Keys to become director of Keys Mosquito Control, has built a career out of finding ways to control mosquito populations without resorting to the most effective, yet most environmentally hazardous method of using DDT. [...] Doyle was intrigued when he first got a call from Oxitec, the British company that has found a way to breed genetically modified male mosquitoes for the purpose of reducing disease carrying mosquito species. Oxitec got good results in trials in other countries like the British Cayman Islands and Malaysia. Doyle and Oxitec saw great potential in holding similar trials in the US under the scrutiny of US regulatory agencies. But the experiment has been delayed for months now seemingly because of an ambiguity in jurisdiction – exactly which government office would oversee it.

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