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Technology of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Is Dangerous and Should Be Stopped

After sparking controversy in other countries including India, the technology of genetically engineered mosquitoes is now leading to widespread protests in Florida USA. Here the biotechnology giant company Oxitec in collaboration with local officialdom is moving ahead with a pilot project to release millions of genetically engineered mosquitoes in Monroe County over a period of two years or so. The stated aim is to control the population of Aedes aegypti, a species that can carry both the dengue and the yellow fever virus. The idea is for genetically altered male, non-biting mosquitoes to mate with local, biting females, producing offspring that die at larval stage.

Pointing out the inherent dangers of such technologies a spokesperson of Florida Key Environmental Coalition said that everyone should be writing to the White House to stop the release, at least until regulations to protect people are in place. Friends of the Earth has commented that scientists have raised concerns that genetically engineered mosquitoes could create hybrid wild mosquitoes which could worsen the spread of mosquito borne diseases and could be more resistant to insecticides than the original wild mosquitoes.

This debate in Florida should not be seen in isolation but in combination with similar controversies that have been sparked in several other countries as well by this technology. There were recent media reports that trials of technology of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes took place in Maharashtra and attempts for bigger trials were being made. In fact many such trials have been organized even with secrecy in several parts of the world, even though serious hazards associated with such trials have been exposed time and again.

Dr. Helen Wallace , Director of GeneWatch UK has written , “The benefits of releasing billions of genetically engineered mosquitoes into the environment have been exaggerated and the risks have been downgraded. One concern is that releasing genetically engineered mosquitoes could even make the dengue situation worse, perhaps by reducing immunity to the more serious form of the disease. Panamanin researchers have warned that a competitor species, the Asian tiger mosquito, which also transmits dengue and chikungunya, could move in and be harder to eradicate. Disease transmission by this might increase in future. The use of tetracycline to feed genetically engineered mosquitoes in Oxitec’s (Oxitec is a British firm involved in spreading this technology) mosquito factory risks introducing antibiotic resistance bacteria into the environment, posing a risk to human health.”

Earlier a press release by Friends of the Earth USA informed , “ A confidential internal document obtained by civil society groups shows genetically modified mosquitoes described by their manufacturer, UK company Oxitec, as sterile are in fact not sterile and their offspring have a 15 per cent survival rate in the presence of the common antibiotic tetracycline.”

Eric Hoffman of Friends of the Earth said while commenting on this that the credibility of the company involved has been undermined as it has been hiding data from the public. He said that trials of its mosquitoes should not move further in the absence of comprehensive and impartial review of environmental hazards and human health risks.

A Reuters report dated 30 January 2016 and titled ‘GMO Mosquitoes could be cause of Zika outbreak, critics say’ said, “Oxitec critics also suggest that in the absence of studies into the potential knock-out effects of this in these mutated mosquitoes it is possible that they thrive in the wild with unknown mutations taking place in the genetically modified mosquitoes, which in turn could worsen the spread of Zika virus.”

This technology followed in the Genetic Control of Mosquitoes Unit project in India had been indicted for its biological warfare implications by the Public Accounts Committee of the Indian Parliament.

According to media reports, small-scale trials of release of genetically modified mosquitoes were conducted in Maharashtra and it is likely that preparations may be made for bigger field trials.

Although it is pushed in the name of disease control by powerful interests it may actually lead to a worsening of diseases, as pointed out in recent years by several public interest campaigns in several countries.

In India these efforts were first seen in the form of the Genetic Control of Mosquitoes Unit Project during the 1970s and this project was strongly criticized in the media for its various hazards and even biological warfare implications. The Public Accounts Committee of the the Indian Parliament also suppoted this criticism in its 167th Report. The hazardous implications of the project were exposed by C. Raghavan in Mainstream (May 17, 1975) and by the brilliant PTI reporter Dr. K.S. Jayaraman. While a lot of damage was done by this project, the large-scale release of dangerous mosquitoes in the crowded city of Sonipat in Haryana, near Delhi, could be stopped at the last minute.

In a recent comprehensive review of this technology titled Mosquito in the Ointment (see Frontline February 16, 2018) a senior Indian scientist Dr. P.K. Rajagopalan, former director of the Vector Control Research Centre has exposed many-sided problems and hazards of this technology. He has concluded after examining a lot of evidence from various parts of world, including India, “It is obvious that the release of genetically manipulated vector mosquitoes not only is ineffective but also poses a great danger to society.”

Hence any further trial of this dangerous technology should be stopped immediately.

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The Technology of Producing Only Female Calves Should be Opposed Firmly

There is a fast increasing trend in cattle breeding towards sex semen technology which will result in birth of only female calves. 90 per cent success in ensuring success (in terms of having only female calves) is claimed by promoters of this technology. Although the drift towards this shockingly reductionist technology was initially restricted in India to some extent by the high costs of the technology patents vesting with USA firms, there have been increasing efforts to develop Indian technology and there has been increasing emphasis by the union government during the last six years towards supporting it, with a minister claiming to set up ‘ cow factories’.

The Hindu Business Line reported on December 27 2019: The country has found an innovative solution to control stray animal population. It is implementing the sex-sorting semen technology for artificial insemination, which will produce only female animals. This will reduce the number of male calves.

Tracing the advent of this technology in India earlier The Times of India had reported on November 26, 2014—For the first times in the country an artificial insemination centre has been set up by dairy giant Amul which plans to develop sexed semen technology and then impregnate into newly matured young cows. This will ensure that the cows inseminated with ‘sexed semen’ only give birth to young female calves… Amul officials claim that they have already partnered with some of the country’s premier institutes for developing this technology. In sexed semen, the fractions of the X-bearing (female) and Y-bearing (male) sperm are modified from the natural semen through sorting and selection.

More recently the Business Standard quoted a minister and BJP leader as stating that we will set up cow birth factories (ham gai paida karne ki factory laga denge). He said that 30 lakh doses of sex-sorted semen will be given in a year and by 2025 there will be 10 crore female cows. (September 2019)

Regarding the new technology being developed in India the Business Standard reported on June 20 2016—This sex semen technology involves clearing of all Y-chromosomes from a male sperm and then injecting into a female.

Further, on November 8 2020 the Business Line reported—India now has an indigenous technology for sex sorting bovine sperms which would ensure birth of only female calves.

It is clear that these developments which take forward the technology of sexed semen for producing only female calves has been generally welcomed by the media as well as by scientists and politicians placed in very important official positions. Nevertheless it is important to raise questions about this.

This is all the more important at this point of time when the world has been ravaged by a pandemic and several scientists and environmentalists now trace the linkages of several pandemics to disruptions in animal life and in animal-human inter-actions, as well as in the wider environmental changes which relate to this. The balance of nature, the balance of various species within it is very important and when this is disrupted many unintentional and unpredicted disruptions in other areas including health can result which can be very harmful. This is all the more important in the case of a species like cow which is so close and integral to rural communities in India and several other countries.

What is the guarantee that human-animal inter-actions will be as harmless in the case of the cows produced with sexed semen technology as these have been with normal cows? What is the guarantee that the milk obtained from these cows will be as nourishing and fit for human and particularly child use as has been the case with the milk from the normal cows? Surely all these questions should at least be asked and examined before we rush on the super highway towards very fast spread of highly dubious technologies and realize mistakes when it is too late.

Another question is—once such short-vision technologies get established and accepted where will these stop. If these are used for eliminating bullocks today, won’t it be the turn of the male species of some other animals tomorrow. Eventually where will this stop and what will be the overall impact in totality on nature and on animal life and on human-animal inter-actions?

In the rush to push highly reductionist and short-vision technologies such as sexed semen, has anyone cared to consider all the potential hazards and adverse impacts? Are the promoters willing to give a guarantee that no serious adverse impacts will emerge? Have they at least considered all the possible adverse impacts?

Bullocks have been such an integral part of rural community life in India as well as several other countries. Farmers have been taking great pride in the health of their bullocks. Bullocks have been celebrated in folklore which indicate the equal affection cows and bullocks received in farmer households with no gender discrimination. Prem Chand wrote a famous story (Do Bailon Ki Katha) which brings out this affection for bullocks vividly and a film with great music was made (Hira-Moti) based on this story. True tractors have displaced them from ploughing in many villages, but they are still used for ploughing in many other villages. In addition they have been used for help in food processing and irrigation and for transport. Bullock carts have been the pride of several rural households and bullock cart races have been organized in many villages. In times of climate change with growing need to reduce fossil fuels the importance of bullocks increases further. Organic and natural farming is becoming more important in times of climate change and cows and bullocks are now so important also for their urine and dung. Methods exist in cattle sheds and go-shalas for obtaining these in clean ways. So science should contribute to better protection for both cows and bullocks instead of upsetting the entire balance.

Questions need to be asked about so human-centric a view of world that a few powerful humans with a tunnel vision become the arbiters of which animal will survive and which will not. It is nightmarish and dystopian to realize that a few reductionist and short-vision men have been given the power to almost eliminate a species—bullocks—which, apart from being a very noble animal in its own right and having every right to life, has served humanity so well. It is equally alarming to know that the union government and a political party which announce their commitment to cow-protection from the housetop actually have such a narrow and distorted view of this issue that they vigorously promote a technology which seeks to almost eliminate the male species.

Surely the sexed semen technology should be opposed widely before it can cause further harm.

(Bharat Dogra is a veteran journalist and author. He has received several prestigious journalism awards for his public interest writings.)