Genetically modified mosquitoes released

07.12.2010

For the first time genetically modified mosquitoes has been released into the wild in Cayman Islands

The Oxford based company Oxitec released from May to October abouth three million genetically modified male mosquitoes.

The goal is to reduce the local population by about 80 % in an attempt to fight the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease dengue.

To read more click here.

Genetically modified mosquitoes and biocontrol is one of the topics at GenØk's conference in Tromsø 22-24 August 2011:

Tough Choices – new biosafety decisions in high stakes arenas

While Bt and roundup-ready crops have occupied the minds of our policy-makers and regulators, a new generation of bio-innovations have been steadily advancing in the lab. Now, they are starting to be released. Sterile mosquitoes, giant fish, custom viruses and drought tolerant crops are all entering the regulatory arena – in some cases, they have already been released.

Offering new hopes for biodiversity conservation and human health, these biotechnologies will force us to ask hard questions about how we understand and treat biotech. When is a risk worth taking? Does human health outweigh biodiversity? How do we trade off certain hazards against possible risks? And should “transgenics” really be the only focus of our regulatory attention?

This is an opportunity to address bio-innovators from a wide range of projects. Uniquely, regulators and decision-makers from across the world are confirmed to attend this conference as part of a biosafety training course.

Sessions:
• Public health and new technologies
• Biocontrol and biodiversity
• Animal production
• Plant production
• Process and risk methodologies of risk assessment
• Ethics and society

To know more about the conference and to register go to the conference website.