If there was a hope for ending Zika virus transmission by mosquitoes by employing genetically modified mosquitoes and there was no foreseeable downside yet, would you agree to employ the tactic?
Media currently is all over the Zika virus story because it is the most saleable health story nationally.
Fairly, they should be covering the story and we can argue about how much at another time. The reason for Zika coverage is the disease is exotic and foreign to us which translates to evil and scary when it impacts a vulnerable population like pregnant women and their newborns.
Also, the disease's impact on a newborn is obvious visually, provoking empathy in all but the most sociopathic. The birth defect seen is called microcephaly, a condition where the skull is smaller because all or part of the brain does not grow.
In most cases the prognosis for a microcephaly patient is difficult to grim at best, and horrific at worst. How the virus causes this defect is unclear at this time.
The virus is carried in two species of aedes mosquitoes that do not commonly live in this region. While the mosquitoes may not be here, we as people move around the globe at will and can bring the virus here.
There have been four confirmed cases of people infected by the virus in Washington state and one so far in Idaho. As disease officials look, there will be more.
Here's the good news, many, if not most, people infected by the Zika virus will not realize it as they will have no symptoms. If they do get sick, they likely will only develop some mild to moderate flu-like symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
So this begs the question, how many people are already infected, built an immune defense that prevents future illness, and yet may be walking around as sources for the virus? As yet, disease authorities do not know.
To combat mosquito-borne diseases, a British company called Oxitec, has developed non-biting male mosquitoes with altered DNA in their sperm. They mate with females (the ones doing the biting), they go on to lay eggs but the larvae will die before they mature, thus collapsing the breeding population.
Tests have shown such an introduction can reduce a local mosquito population by 90 percent. That's impressive enough that the FDA OK'd their release in Florida in June but not without court battles underway currently. This project was in development long before Zika became a headline in order to eliminate spraying of toxic pesticides.
Oxitec's interests were in combatting the dengue, Chikungunya and yellow fever viruses, all carried by the same mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus. In tests, it worked. The Brazilian city of Piracicaba, population nearly 400,000, they saw an 80 percent decrease in mosquito populations after introduction of the GMO males. The town was so impressed with the decreased disease, they begged the company for another year's trial. They also offered them space to expand their operations there, too.
Like so much surrounding new and innovative biotechnologies, some are saying the GMO mosquitoes may have caused the Zika-related birth defects seen in Brazil because that was one of Oxitec's test sites. There's no evidence for this other than a well-adjusted-to-suit-the-argument coincidence yet, and it is unlikely to come.
As genetic modification becomes specific, cheap and easy, along with safer, there's little doubt it will be employed to control such scourges instead of the broad-spectrum pesticides in use now.
Charlie Powell is the public information officer for the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, which provides this column as a community service. For questions or concerns about animals you'd like to read about, email cpowell@vetmed.wsu.edu.
