Shining A Spotlight On The World Mosquito Program
Draft prepared for the Institute for Responsible Technology.
The Mosquitoes From Microbial Perspective Work
All the https://protectnaturenow.com/ points are in bold.
https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OPP-2019-0274-0363
When GMOs enter the environment, they can reproduce and transfer genes that will be passed onto future generations. Regulations and risk assessments are completely inadequate to decide if it is safe to release GM mosquitoes in California. Previously, safety and environmental impact assessments of pest control products needed only to assess chemical impacts over a specified area. Assessing the introduction of novel living organisms with no existing natural niche must take into account their ability to spread. Oxitec has still not produced environmental impact statements, endangered species assessments, or studies on human health impacts .
Spread Via Sexual Reproduction
Consider how a population can spread over a year, first of all through sexual reproduction. Normally the Aedes Aegypti live for two weeks, reproduce three times during that time, up to a 100 eggs each time (CDC, 2021). Oxitec claim to have inserted ‘self-limiting genes’, which ensure the females do not reach maturity, deforming their reproductive organs so they cannot breed. In some experiments the females were produced with deformed mouths so they could not bite (Muller, 2021).
In addition, disruption of their sensing capacities was achieved (Basrur, 2020), by which they would have chosen suitable pooled water for laying their eggs. The applicant claims that they will breed less successfully and reduce disease-carrying populations of biting female mosquitos. Male mosquitos will survive to pass on the lethal gene (Servick, 2019). Finally, scientists added an illuminating transgene, which can be monitored at least while in the confines of the lab, to confirm that the inserted traits have passed onto offspring (Nolan, 2021).
People in the trial areas have not provided their consent to being experimented on with OX5034.
However, the most common occurrence in genetic engineering is unexpected side effects. For example, when male mosquitoes were produced in an experiment that eliminated their attraction to the scent of the female mosquitoes and their inclination to mate, the males developed an attraction instead to human blood, which previously only females expressed (Tracey, 2020). It is too difficult for risk assessments to anticipate a mutation like this and the multitude of other mutations and traits which might be transferred. Bacteria, for example, continually swap genes that help them adapt and survive.
Image: StopGMM.Com
The genetic engineering process itself routinely causes widespread damage to the genome including off-target mutations, additions and deletions (Latham, 2021). Oxitec claim that their genetic engineering process and GE mosquitos are “Precise: Our insects only target their own species. They will not harm other, beneficial insects – unlike some other methods of control”. The claim that genetic engineering is precise has been used by the biotech industry since the production of the first GMO crops and remains completely false. With unexpected and unwanted changes and damage caused by the process, many go unnoticed and it is impossible to predict further mutations downstream.
Unfortunately, most scientists who use gene editing do not spend the time or money to evaluate whether their GMO has unanticipated changes in structure and function (Smith, 2021).
In the Brazil field trials, Oxitec did not perform experiments to assess whether GM mosquitoes might persist in the wild (Powell, 2019). All governments, including the US, have little or no regulatory oversight for gene edited GMOs. They based this hands-off policy on the false belief that gene editing is safe, predictable and even of benefit to public health. As another research group pointed out, public education is not the same as public consultation (Powell, 2019). With such vast numbers of GE insects proposed to be released in densely populated areas, a public referendum should perhaps be called to ensure public awareness and involvement in the decision-making process.
Genetically engineered microbes and viruses present the most immediate and widespread hazards. The transfer of new genes from GM organisms to wild non-GM mosquito populations and non-target species mean that the spread would be much wider, with high risk of negative consequences for human and environmental health (Kofler, 2019).
There was an independent study conducted on DNA spread from the genetically modified mosquitoes released in Brazil. Novel DNA and up to 13% of the genome were found in 5%-60% of the mosquitos captured and tested (Servick 2019). This report clearly refutes the applicant’s claim that no more than 3% of the GE mosquitos will survive (Oxitec, 2021).
Potential Human Health Impacts Have Not Been Researched by Any Third Party
The applicant proposes that only males will be released. Is that possible to guarantee, at such numbers? During Oxitec’s Brazil release, 450,000 GE mosquitos were released every week for two years from 2013-2015 in Jacobina.
Although there was evidence that the mosquito populations were majorly reduced (by between 90% and 96%), there was no evidence that there were fewer cases of dengue fever or Zika virus, both carried by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. Furthermore, up until 2015, Zika was considered a benign disease, with no symptoms but the Zika epidemic that spread in Brazil in 2015 and 2016, registered over 200,000 cases of babies born with brain defects, from the infection (Lowe, 2018). If there is any chance at all that genetically engineered mosquitoes could drive the development of a deadly variant of a previously harmless virus, another release should be deemed unacceptable.
Powell (2019) and the Brazilian research team who discovered the persistent Oxitec DNA strains, raised the alarm that more safety studies should be done. Although they agreed that Oxitec’s two transgenes themselves had not been found in the future generations and there was no evidence that the mosquito population was fitter or more likely to transmit disease, Powell reiterated ‘”What is important is that something unanticipated happened. When people develop transgenic lines or something to release, almost all of their information comes from laboratory studies…Things do not always work out how you expect.”
GMOs can become biological time bombs, hiding their unpredictable side effects until they have come into contact with certain species or conditions, or until their genetic constructs have mutated in future generations. The hope is that the male GE mosquitoes would mate with the native population of females and the lethal gene only be passed to female offspring.
OX5034 GMO Mosquitoes Are Raised in Tetracycline and May Spread Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Such as Staph and MRSA
These genetic alterations could end up in organisms and ecosystems that were never intended or considered. Oxitec claims the GM mosquitos are “Non-persistent: The self-limiting system means that our self-limiting gene cannot establish in the ecosystem.” Even their ‘self-limiting system’ presents an immediate human health threat. Oxitec describes how when they turn off the self-destruct mechanism, in order to let the mosquitos breed, they use an antibiotic Tetracycline (Oxitec, 2021). Tetracycline is used to treat a variety of bacterial infections. Using any antibiotic when it is not needed can cause it to not work for future infections. (WebMD, 2021) By 2050, it is estimated that 10 million people will die every year due to antibiotics having been rendered ineffective (Kennedy, 2021) from overuse.
In addition, due to the widespread nature of gene transfer between species, it is nonsense for the applicant to propose that the GM mosquitos will not interact with other species and exchange genetic material, whether they are designed to target their own species exclusively or not. The only time to prevent the release of altered microbes associated with the GE mosquitos is now. They cannot be traced or recalled and it may not be possible to protect the microbiome on which our food and environment depend afterwards.
Environmental Impacts Have Not Been Assessed, Including Impact On Endangered Species
The applicant completely overlooks the nature of the mosquitos’ beneficial roles in the environment, including biomass transfer, their place in the food chain, and as pollinators.
If a mosquito survives to adulthood, it flies away from its aquatic habitat, transferring the mosquito’s biomass, its material weight, to the terrestrial ecosystem. Mosquito biomass has been calculated at 96 million pounds in Alaska alone (Peach, 2019). Have the applicants considered the impact on waterways and sanitation, if vast quantities of GE mosquitos do not reach maturity, and remain festering in the pools where the eggs were laid? Water is an equal disease vector as mosquitos (Oryan, 2020). Has an assessment been done on how the nutrient-cycling by mosquitoes to plant growth and other ecosystem functions will be replaced or maintained if the species are eradicated? As Peach (2019) comments, although these aspects remain unstudied the amount of biomass involved implies that it may be important. Of 550 gigatons of biomass on the planet, insects make up 1% whereas humans make up only 0.06% (Daly, 2018).
GMO Mosquitos Will Not Reduce Pesticide Spraying
The United Nations estimates that the productivity of 20 percent of the planet’s vegetated surface is declining (Giles, 2019). Genetically altered bacteria from degrading GE Mosquito biomass could be released into California’s already nearly inert soil microbiome and affect fertility. Insecticide-resistant insects are also associated with higher levels of insecticide use, causing nutrient, water and soil structure loss and erosion (Pocket, 2021). It is conceivable that the GE mosquitoes could cause an imbalance in biological properties, including soil enzymes, microorganisms and their activities. These altered microbes might migrate into the atmosphere, into the ocean, even within microbiomes of humans or animals.
While Oxitec claims its GMO mosquitoes are necessary to fight dengue fever, there’s no proof that they can actually eradicate the disease
Several studies suggest that the GE Mosquitos will not do what they are purported to do. The mosquitos have been developed on the belief that it is the adult biting female mosquitoes that transmit disease. In fact it was found out that mosquitoes were the cause of an outbreak of Ockelbo disease in Sweden in 2013. A study published in Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases (2016), established that the related Sindbis virus could be found in mosquito larvae in spring, the year after the 2013 outbreak. The researchers concluded that the virus is transferred from the female mosquito to her eggs. "The mosquitoes are infected with the virus already at birth, which has not previously been shown," (Evander, 2016).
The larvae live in water for up to two weeks. In this time, they feed constantly. They primarily use brushes near their mouths to filter through the water where they are living and eat microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, algae and plankton. However, some kinds of mosquito larvae even eat the larvae of other mosquitoes (Jenkins-Green, 2021)
Risk assessment is beyond current predictive capacity.
Once it is understood that disease pathogens are already present in the mosquito larvae, it makes it unacceptably dangerous to introduce GE mosquitoes designed to perpetuate a gene that is lethal to females. Altered microorganisms would inevitably pass through horizontal gene transfer to other aquatic species, to migratory birds and be carried in the water itself into the fresh water and food supply.
Mosquito larvae are eaten by many creatures including birds, bats, frogs and other insects. Adult mosquitoes that die (or are eaten and excreted) then decompose, turning the microbes they consumed as larvae into nutrients for plants, completing another important ecological function (Evander, 2016). Mosquito larvae grow by consuming microorganisms such as algae and microbes that decompose decaying plant material (Peach, 2019).
GE Mosquito Pollinators - will they participate and do the job and could they do harm?
Genetic evidence supports a rapid increase in mosquito diversity corresponding with the appearance of flowering plants. Mosquito scales have been found in flower fossils from 145.5 to 66 million years ago. Mosquitoes serve as prolific pollinators interacting with many different plants (Peach, 2019). Mosquito-mediated pollination can be broken into three stages all of which involve microbial interaction. Will plants attract GE mosquitos to their flowers at the pre-pollination stage to collect pollen? GE organisms have been shown to exert different selection pressures on their microbiome and related functions (Krishnan, 2021). Will the GE insects fulfil the second stage leading to pollen receipt and dispersal. In the post-pollination stage, the pollen germinates on the stigma, grows down the style, releasing sperm nuclei that fertilize the eggs within the ovules that ultimately become seeds (Cullen, 2020). Has gene transfer been assessed from the GE mosquito saliva to pollen and into the sexual organs of plants with which they interact during pollination (Peach, 2019)?
Oxitec claims biting females will not be released. A peer-reviewed study proved them wrong.
The claims of “sustainability” made by Oxitec (2021) also ignore the mosquitos’ own extensive microbiota. Bacteria colonize different mosquito organs, including gut, salivary glands, ovaries and male accessory glands (Huang, 2020). Questioning an earlier application the applicants were informally asked if the saliva of the GE mosquitoes had been tested for presence of pathogen variants or other altered genetic material and they’re possible interaction with the human population, and saliva had not been tested (Smith, 2013). Although the Lyme disease bacteria have been found in the salivary glands of mosquitoes, there is no evidence that mosquitoes are capable of passing them on in a very short bite, in the number and state required for an infection. This might reassure regulators but actually the other epidemic in Sweden, caused by Sindbus virus demonstrated a huge under diagnosis of cases as the symptoms are synonymous with arthritis and can begin as quite mild (Evander, 2016).
Mosquito larvae grow by consuming microorganisms such as algae and microbes that decompose decaying plant material. Larval mosquitoes contribute to aquatic food chains by serving as food sources for many predators, including fish and birds (Peach, 2019). In addition to the disaster if the lethal transgene transferred to other pollinators, aquatic insects, fish and birds, disabling crucial reproductive functions, it could also feasibly enter the human microbiome. Even small alterations to the microbiome can have profound consequences, including disease or death of an organism, and disruption or collapse of ecosystems.
Alternatives – Cleaning up areas that are worst affected via better sanitation and using the native mosquitoes’ own microbiota.
Increasing interest has been shown in employing symbiotic bacteria to control mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquito salivary gland, ovaries and hemolymph are also important for virus or parasite replication and transmission. Many studies believe that the only appropriate and effective way to address the spread of disease amongst the human population is to address the issues of poverty and access to clean water and sanitary systems (Lewis, 2021).
There has been no transparency surrounding the experimental release. Where? When? How many? What are they trying to hide?
The proposed amendment would extend field testing in Florida by another 24 months on up to 6,240 acres and expand testing to California on up 84,600 acres. This specific acreage suggests that the applicants have a way to contain the GE mosquitos in this designated test area. The problem of containment is only unsatisfactorily addressed in the highest security laboratories (Nolan, 2021). Hundreds of accidents in high security laboratories that work with microbes and viruses underscore the serious risk of creating these, even for contained research purposes. 1.4. Facilities that create or utilize GE microbes in production and research often lack the precautions and disposal methods to prevent environmental release. Too little attention is paid to potentially harmful impacts that these organisms may have on various ecosystems, including the human microbiome. Through contamination of waterways, pollen and gene transfer to other species through the food chain and decaying mosquito biomass, there are infinite pathways for altered microbes to spread beyond the test area and the GE mosquitoes’ own reach.
Similar experiments in Brazil and Cayman Islands have been a failure.
Access to gene editing technology already opens the floodgates for companies to manufacture hundreds and thousands of different gene sequences every day. These are tested for successes rather than errors or failures. The resulting GE products are therefore by no means ready for approval or release in the open environment and it would be irresponsible to do so.
It might have taken the pandemic for people to realize how microbes and viruses rapidly cross borders and encircle the globe. It is widely understood now how microbes can interact with the microbiome of vastly different ecosystems and organisms. Risk and safety assessments of the GE mosquitoes’ microbiota and their interaction with the environment are too extensive to fathom. Microbes are found everywhere on earth, in the atmosphere, in the soil, in water, in all genetically engineered and native organisms and in us.
Based on more than 50,000 published studies, we now understand that the majority of chronic illnesses in humans can be traced to some sort of ecological dysfunction (Smith, 2020). The health of insects and plants are also supported by their microbiomes. Humans, for example, have about 22,000 functional genes in our chromosomes. The Aedes Aegypti mosquito has just under 15,500 (Wortman, 2007). But according to some experts, we more than make up for it because we are really an ecosystem for microbes. Our bodies contain over three and a half million microbial genes. They dictate the vast majority of the metabolic functions within our body.
It is urgent that we implement responsible laws and policies to prevent the release of any more GE organisms and their microbial communities; implement appropriate safeguards at all facilities using or creating GE microbes, assign strict liability costs should any human or environmental health crisis occur, as a result of insufficient safety testing of the applicant’s products and releases to date.
These problems of unexpected damage to the mosquito genome, unwanted mutations and the proliferation of changed microbes establishing in the environment via horizontal gene transfer are confirmed in peer-reviewed studies. They are still being ignored or denied by many GMO proponents and lobbyists. The massive introduction of GMOs in this generation could permanently replace nature. We could lose biological evolution as we know it, disrupting the crucial functions of building organic matter and pollination in growing food and accessibility of clean water.
References
Basrur, N.S., 2020, Fruitless mutant male mosquitoes gain attraction to human odor Fruitless mutant male mosquitoes gain attraction to human odor
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Boto, Luis, 2014 HGT of Novel Traits https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2013.2450
CDC, 2021 https://www.cdc.gov/dengue/resources/factsheets/mosquitolifecyclefinal.pdf
Correa, Maria, 2018 Generation of axenic Aedes aegypti demonstrate live bacteria are not required for mosquito development - Nature Communications
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Cullen, .P., 2020 Integrating microbes into pollination
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214574520301462
Daly, Jason, 2018 Humans Make Up Just 1/10,000 of Earth's Biomass
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Giles, Jim, 2019 https://www.greenbiz.com/article/fight-define-regenerative-agriculture
Hammond, Andrew, 2021 https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/07/28/1020932493/how-an-altered-strand-of-dna-can-cause-malaria-spreading-mosquitoes-to-self-dest
Huang, Wei, 2020, Use of Microbiota to Fight Mosquito-Borne Disease
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Jenkins-Green, Vanessa, 2021 https://www.abchomeandcommercial.com/blog/what-do-mosquito-larvae-eat
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Kofler, Maria, 2019 Genetically modifying mosquitoes to control the spread of disease carries unknown risks
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Natalie Kofler: Scientific Citizenship Initiative Advisor and Center for Bioethics Lecturer, Harvard Medical School. Francoise Baylis: Research Professor, Philosophy, Dalhousie University. Graham Dellaire: Director of Research and Professor of Pathology, Dalhousie University. Landon J Getz: Vanier Scholar and Ph.D. Candidate in Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University
Latham, 2021 Genetically Modified Microbes. The Technological and Legislative Challenges and National Security Implications, GMM Executive Summary - Protect Nature Now
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Lewis, Lori, 2021 The Water Project - NonGMO ways to stop disease spread by watching regeneration of NYC Water Scheme Cholera, Dengue Fever, and Malaria: The Unquestionable Link to Water
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Lowe, Rachel, 2018, The Zika Virus Epidemic in Brazil: From Discovery to Future Implications
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The first confirmed case of Zika virus infection in the Americas was reported in Northeast Brazil in May 2015, although phylogenetic studies indicate virus introduction as early as 2013. Zika rapidly spread across Brazil and to more than 50 other countries and territories on the American continent. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is thought to be the principal vector responsible for the widespread transmission of the virus.
Muller, Ruth 2021, How An Altered Strand Of DNA Can Cause Malaria-Spreading Mosquitoes To Self-Destruct
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Nolan, Tony, 2021 https://www.geneconvenevi.org/articles/scientists-reveal-controversial-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-in-high-security-lab/
Oryan, A., 2015 Water as a Potential Transmission Route
Peach, Daniel. A. H., 2019 The Bizarre and Ecologically Important Hidden Lives of Mosquitos The bizarre and ecologically important hidden lives of mosquitoes
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Peach, Daniel. A. H., 2019 Mosquito phytophagy – sources exploited, ecological function, and evolutionary transition to haematophagy Mosquito phytophagy – sources exploited, ecological function, and evolutionary transition to haematophagy
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Pocket K, 2021 No. 57: Impact of GM Crops on Soil Health Impact of GM Crops on Soil Health
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Stop GMM Mosquitoes Coalition - Image https://stopgmm.com
Stop GMM Citation: Take Action
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Stop GMM Educational Materials - the full information on false claims and failings of Oxitec’s research, products and experimental release of over a billion GE mosquitoes. https://stopgmm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Top_10_Problems_with_Genetically_Modified_Mosquito_OX5034.pdf
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Tracey, W.D., 2019 Mosquitos: The taste of water
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WebMD, 2021 Drugs & Medications
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Wortman, N. V., 2007, Genome sequence of Aedes aegypti, a major arbovirus vector Genome sequence of Aedes aegypti, a major arbovirus vector
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