Genetically modified mosquitoes plan disaster in Brazil

An experimental trial done for reducing the mosquito population in Brazil. 450,000 genetically modified mosquitoes have failed miserably and may have even created a genetic fusion of super species.

Genetically modified mosquitoes plan disaster in BrazilBritish biotech company Oxitec conducted a 27-month long experiment in 2013 Jacobina, Brazil, aimed in reducing the population of local mosquito by 90 percent while preserving the genetic integrity of the local insect population.

The overall goal was to limit the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, through releasing half a million OX513A mosquitoes. The insects are a genetically modified version of the Aedes aegypti mosquito’s, which combined a breed from Mexico with a breed from Cuba.

Jeffrey Powell (author, ecologist and evolutionary biologist) said “The claim was that genetic factor from the release strain would not get into the general population because offspring would die”

The original Oxitec research suggested that just three to four percent of the “infertile” offspring would living in parenthood and would be too weak to reproduce well. These predictions were wrong.

10 to 60 percent of the mosquitoes analyzed by his team featured genomes tainted by OX513A. With a dramatic reduction in the population, initially scheme worked apparently. Later it would completely backfire around the 18-month mark, returning the number of mosquito’s in the area to pre-release levels.

According to Powell and his team, discussed phenomena known as “mating discrimination”. In which the female population turns out, chosen not to mate with the weaker, genetically-modified mosquitoes anyway, in a

Some genetically mosquitoes showed signs of “hybrid vigor” means artificially introduced genetic range which actually made the mosquitoes brazil stronger and more resilient. It has possibility of increased resistance to insecticides.

However, an Oxitec spokesperson claims the research contains “numerous false, speculative and unsubstantiated claims and statements about Oxitec’s mosquitoes technology”.

He claiming in document print on 3 pages, that the paper did not identify any “negative, deleterious or unanticipated effect to people or the environment from the release of OX513A mosquitoes brazil.”