We can wipe out disease-carrying mosquitoes
The Centers for Disease Control has now confirmed a link between the Zika virus and infants born with microcephaly, increasing the urgency of finding a cure before the height of the mosquito season. Although scientists have made significant progress in Zika vaccine development, final approval is years away according to the World Health Organization. Destroying mosquitoes is the only viable and immediately available option, with the bestway to do it starting with their DNA.
British-based biotech company Oxitec has tweaked the genes of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the type that carries Zika and other nasty diseases like malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever and chikungunya. Oxitec’s technology works to reduce the population of Aedes aegypti by genetically engineering them to pass on a self-limiting gene, which kills their offspring before they reach adulthood. In tests, this approach has lowered mosquito populations by 90 percent or more.
Current mosquito interventions fall short. Even with the best available methods including insecticide spraying, Aedes aegypti can only be reduced by about 30 percent to 50 percent, not enough to prevent the spread of disease.
Oxitec’s genetically engineered mosquito is a novel approach in mosquito control because it stops the virus at the source.
Unfortunately, this breakthrough technology has encountered opposition from anti-genetic engineering groups. Activists already have protested the release of the beneficial mosquitoes in Florida and a change.org petition aims to stop the technology altogether. Their reasons are mostly based on unfounded distrust of genetically engineered foods.
Some activist groups also worry that decreasing populations of mosquitoes could deprive birds, bats and fish that eat mosquitoes a major food source. Scientists say that any impact to the wildlife food chain would be minimal as these animals feed on other organisms besides mosquitoes.
Furthermore, the insect has been successfully tested in other countries, “successfully reducing populations of the insect by up to 90 percent in field trials in the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Malaysia and Panama,” reported Lisa Palmer of Environment 360.
We can’t afford to let unfounded fears about safe technology prevent a solution to a serious health crisis from being used.
In the United States, the Zika virus has spread with more than 50 cases being reported in14 states, including Florida where Oxitec is awaiting the Food and Drug Administration’s green light to conduct trials of its mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. While the cases were all reportedly contracted by travelers, there are concerns that Zika, like dengue and chikungunya, could spread locally.
Let’s not wait for an epidemic to use the technology we have to protect the health of the next generation.
Jim Greenwood is president and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization in Washington.