Press Release issued by African Centre for Biodiversity, Third World Network and GeneWatch UK
9th November 2018
Release of risky GM mosquitoes in Burkina Faso highly unethical
Risky genetically modified (GM) "male-sterile" mosquitoes are due to be
released in the very near future, in Burkina Faso by the Target Malaria
research consortium. However, Target Malaria acknowledges that there are
no benefits to the proposed GM mosquito
release.
According to Mariam Mayet, Executive Director of the African Centre for
Biodiversity, "There is absolutely no justification for releasing these
GM mosquitoes. It is highly unethical and totally unacceptable to
conduct experiments which carry risks, yet do not
bring any benefit for malaria control in Burkina Faso".
The
application to make open releases of GM mosquitoes was reportedly
approved by the National Biosafety Agency (Agence Nationale de
Biosécurité, ANB) in Burkina Faso in September 2018, and, as a result,
the first open releases of GM mosquitoes in Africa are planned
for the coming year.
The open release is intended to test the infrastructure and systems for
future release for, as yet, experimental technologies, notably "gene
drive" mosquitoes. Target Malaria's ultimate aim is to release gene
drive mosquitoes, with the aim of reducing the population
of Anopheles mosquitoes, which can transmit the parasite that causes
malaria. The hope is that reducing the mosquito population will reduce
the risk of malaria transmission and hence disease incidence.
However, the proposed release of GM "male-sterile" mosquitoes, meant to
only be for training purposes, is not expected to deliver any benefits
for malaria control in Burkina Faso. This is not an early stage trial
for later releases of the gene drive mosquitoes,
but releases of an entirely different GM mosquito.
Instead, the release of the GM mosquito poses risks, including the
incidental release of some biting female GM mosquitoes during the
experiments. While Target Malaria claims that the number will be small,
nevertheless, since GM female mosquitoes can bite humans
and spread disease, the release of biting females still poses some risk
to local people.
Furthermore, there is evidence that Target Malaria is paying
compensation of 400 CFA francs (approximately 70 US cents) per hour to
local villagers to allow for the collection of biting female mosquitoes
from their own bodies.
"The use of a financial incentive to individuals to expose themselves to
biting female mosquitoes, and potentially to malaria, is also ethically
extremely questionable", said Dr. Helen Wallace, Director of GeneWatch
UK.
There is no published environmental risk assessment (ERA), other than
that published by Target Malaria and there has been no public
consultation, apart from "public engagement" activities conducted by
Target Malaria (the organisation proposing the releases).
Any decision on open releases of GM mosquitoes requires meaningful
public consultation, as mandated by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety,
to which Burkina Faso is a Party.
"The lack of a comprehensive, published ERA, which has been subject to a
full public consultation, undermines the legitimacy and credibility of
the reported approval of these experiments", said Lim Li Ching, Senior
Researcher from the Third World Network. "Without
this, local people cannot be fully informed about the risks before
making a decision on whether to accept them."
Malaria is a serious public health issue that disproportionately affects
Africa. Instead of investing in risky GM technologies, what is needed
is a more holistic approach to significantly and sustainably decrease
the burden of malaria - one that integrates
interventions and research on health, climate, agriculture (and
eventually economics and housing) - in tackling the main factors
contributing to the disease and its transmission (*).
Contacts:
Mariam Mayet, Tel: + 27 83 269 4309
Lim Li Ching, Tel: +44 7801 411601
Dr Helen Wallace, Tel: +44 330 0010507/+44 7903 311584
Notes to Editors:
- Target Malaria is a consortium of research institutes that receives core funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Open Philanthropy Project Fund, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Individual laboratories also receive additional funding from a variety of sources to support each laboratory's work, including the United Kingdom government (the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Medical Research Council), the Wellcome Trust (a UK-based charity), the European Commission, the Ugandan Ministry of Health, and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST). (See http://targetmalaria.org/who-we-are/)
- "Gene drive" is a way of trying to spread genetically engineered traits through a whole population of plants or animals. In the Target Malaria project, the aim of the gene drive is to spread a genetic trait that biases the sex ratio of the mosquito population towards male mosquitoes, thus suppressing the mosquito population. However, the technology to do so does not yet exist and may not be successful. There have been many warnings, including from scientists working in the area of gene drive, that gene drive may be uncontrollable and could have unintended consequences, and civil society organisations have called for a moratorium on this technique. (See http://www.etcgroup.org/content/160-global-groups-call-moratorium-new-genetic-extinction-technology-un-convention)
-
Consent Form for the collection of biting female mosquitoes in English (translated from the French original):
https://acbio.org.za/sites/default/files/documents/Consent%20form%20Target%20Malaria%20ENG.pdf ; Consent form in French:
https://acbio.org.za/sites/default/files/documents/doc04065120180719114656.pdf
- GM Mosquitoes in Burkina Faso: A briefing for the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is a briefing paper published by the African Centre for Biodiversity, Third World Network and GeneWatch UK. It is available (in English: http://www.genewatch.org//uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/GM_mosquito_report_WEB.pdf and French: http://www.genewatch.org//uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/GM_mosquito_report_Fre_WEB.pdf)
* A more holistic response to malaria is overdue, April 22, 2016,
http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/04/22/estrella-lasry-a-more-holistic-response-to-malaria-is-overdue/