Genetically engineered mosquitos are set to be released in Australia by a joint venture between the national science agency and a British biotechnology company funded by Bill Gates.
The Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and UK-based Oxitec announced the creation of Oxitec Australia last month, saying the partnership aimed to fight the spread of mosquito-borne diseased like dengue, Zika and yellow fever.
The new venture will use Oxitec’s commercialised “biological solutions”, including its “Friendly™ platform” where genetically engineered male mosquitoes carrying a self-limiting gene that ensures only non-biting males survive are released into the wild, reducing pest females and overall mosquito numbers.
Professor Brett Sutton, who was Chief Health Officer of Victoria during the Covid pandemic and used emergency powers to impose the world’s longest lockdown on Melbourne along with draconian human rights-violating restrictions, is now Director of Health & Biosecurity at CSIRO and a key figure in Oxitec Australia.
Oxitec Australia’s “just-add-water” product uses its Friendly™ Aedes aegypti mosquito technology (CSIRO)
Oxitec mosquito eggs are hatched from a box (CSIRO)
“Oxitec Australia offers a unique opportunity to help combat the growing threat of invasive and exotic pests, some of which are on mainland Australia’s doorstep like Aedes albopictus,” Professor Sutton said.
“Factors like climate change and growing pesticide resistance will only bring greater challenges to the health of Australians and our region via vector-borne diseases.
“By investing in new and innovative solutions that complement existing control programs, we can reduce the public health impacts of these exotic and invasive mosquito species. This technology platform could also be used to develop solutions for a wide spectrum of pests that threaten livestock and crops and our food systems.”
Professor Sutton told ABC News the technology had been used successfully in Brazil, and that the process involved placing factory-made mosquito eggs into a box with water and allowing them to hatch and interbreed with existing mosquito populations.
He said the “product” that targeted Aedes aegypti, an invasive African mosquito that can spread dengue and is already established in northern and central Queensland, was “ready to go”, but needed government approval before it could be released.
“It needs to get through our Office of Gene Technology regulator before it can be rolled out,” he said.
“It’s a bit like the TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] for our medicines, but it’s looking at genetically modified products, and it needs to go through the same type of rigorous process.”
In 2021 the TGA approved the Oxford–AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, but it was later withdrawn for people under 60 due to the risk of blood-clotting and is no longer being produced.
Just two months before the federal government raised the age limit for the AstraZeneca jab, Professor Sutton declared that flying to Europe was riskier for clotting while urging Victorians to get injected with the product.
In November, Dr Raj Bhula, Australia’s Gene Technology Regulator, confirmed his office has received a licence application from Oxitec Australia seeking approval “to commercially release a genetically modified mosquito strain to reduce the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to help prevent dengue outbreaks in Queensland”.
The office will release a risk assessment plan for public comment and expert advice in late March this year, with 30 days allowed for submissions.
Grey Frandsen, CEO of Oxitec, said the Australian venture was looking to release the genetically modified mosquitos in the Torres Strait, where Professor Sutton said local aboriginals were being consulted with.
“In collaboration with Indigenous communities, leading scientific institutions, industry partners and farmers, we’re committed to transforming how pest threats to health, food security and ecosystems are addressed,” Mr Frandsen said.
“In doing so, we aim to not only protect lives, livelihoods and biodiversity, but also empower Indigenous communities to take the lead in addressing their pest challenges.”
But independent Queensland senator Gerard Rennick said the licence application should be rejected by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.
“Given there is next to no dengue fever in Australia this proposed trial is completely unnecessary and risky,” he said on Sunday.
“I will follow up as to why the OGTR are even considering this.”
Dengue deaths are extremely rare in Australia.
Oxitec received a $1,415,894 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2020, and has carried out genetically engineered mosquito field trials in Brazil, Malaysia, Panama, and the United States.
Header image: Left, an invasive African mosquito on skin. Right, Brett Sutton (CSIRO)
