Zika outbreak epicenter in same area where Oxitec GM mosquitoes were released in 2015 [View all]

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Zika seemingly exploded out of nowhere. Though it was first discovered in 1947, cases only sporadically occurred throughout Africa and southern Asia. In 2007, the first case was reported in the Pacific. In 2013, a smattering of small outbreaks and individual cases were officially documented in Africa and the western Pacific. They also began showing up in the Americas. In May 2015, Brazil reported its first case of Zika virus — and the situation changed dramatically.

Enter Oxitec, a British company recently purchased by Intrexon, a synthetic biology company based in Maryland. Oxitec first unveiled its large-scale, genetically-modified mosquito farm in Juazeiro, in Northeast Brazil, in July 2012, with the goal of reducing “the incidence of dengue fever,” The Disease Daily reported. By July 2015, shortly after the GM mosquitoes were first released into the wild in Juazeiro, Oxitec proudly announced they had “successfully controlled the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads dengue fever, chikungunya and zika virus, by reducing the target population by more than 90%.”

Northeast Brazil is now considered the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, which coincides with at least 4,000 reports of babies born with microcephaly just since October. Half of the workforce of the mining sector in the region is comprised of children. Without viable economic alternatives, most children must join their parents in rudimentary mining pits; children as young as two years transport, wash, and crush minerals to earn half a dollar a day.

The particular strain of Oxitec GM mosquitoes, OX513A, are genetically altered so the vast majority of their offspring will die before they mature — though Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher published concerns in a report in September 2010 that a known survival rate of 3-4 % warranted further study before the release of the GM insects. Her concerns, which were echoed by several other scientists both at the time and since, appear to have been ignored — though they should not have been.

Those genetically-modified mosquitoes work to control wild, potentially disease-carrying populations in a very specific manner. Only the male modified Aedes mosquitoes are supposed to be released into the wild — as they will mate with their unaltered female counterparts. Once offspring are produced, the modified, scientific facet is supposed to ‘kick in’ and kill that larvae before it reaches breeding age — if tetracycline is not present during its development. But there is a problem: as a confidential internal Oxitec document divulged in 2012, that survival rate could be as high as 15% — even with low levels of tetracycline present.

Even absent this tetracycline, as Steinbrecher explained, a “sub-population” of genetically-modified Aedes mosquitoes could theoretically develop and thrive, in theory, “capable of surviving and flourishing despite any further” releases of ‘pure’ GM mosquitoes which still have that gene intact. She added, “the effectiveness of the system also depends on the [genetically-designed] late onset of the lethality. If the time of onset is altered due to environmental conditions … then a 3-4% [survival rate] represents a much bigger problem.”

As the WHO stated in its press release, “conditions associated with this year’s El Niño weather pattern are expected to increase mosquito populations greatly in many areas.”

At: http://www.healthfreedoms.org/zika-outbreak-epicenter-in-same-area-where-gm-mosquitoes-were-released-in-2015/