Britain has a “moral duty” to step up research into genetic modification as a way of controlling insect pests and disease carriers, according to a new report from the House of Lords.



Half the planet is at risk from infections such as dengue fever and malaria and countless lives could be saved by the introduction and spread of genetically modified (GM) insects that could no longer transmit such diseases, says the Lords science and technology committee after a four-month study of the technology, its possibilities and its challenges.

“GM insect technologies have the potential not only to save countless lives worldwide, but also to generate significant economic benefits for UK plc,” said the committee’s chairman, Lord Selborne.

But, he said, the development of the technology had come to a “screeching halt” because of a “woefully inadequate” European regulatory system. Field trials should be launched to advance the science, focus public engagement and put the EU regulations to the test.

“While we acknowledge that the science may not be a silver bullet in the fight against fatal disease and threats to food security, it could prove an invaluable addition to our armoury.”

Dengue fever is a potentially lethal viral infection carried by mosquitoes, estimated to strike nearly 400 million people a year: it has already been reported in Europe. Malaria, also spread by a mosquito-borne parasite, kills more than 400,000 a year and infects at least 200 million. The same technology could be turned upon the chikungunya virus, carried by mosquitoes in 60 countries, against West Nile fever, and against the trypanosomiasis-bearing bug responsible for Chagas disease in Latin America.

But insect pests also damage crops and afflict domestic herds, causing huge economic losses and threatening food supplies for the poorest and most vulnerable. The same approach used for human diseases could be turned on bluetongue, a viral disease of cattle and sheep, infectious salmon anaemia, transmitted by sea lice, and many other herd afflictions.

The GM approach to health protection is simple enough: breed a sterile male mosquito and release it in sufficient numbers into an infectious population. It will mate with females, who will die without issue. There is no chance that the genetic modification will spread within the ecosystem and – the theory goes – at some point the numbers of infectious mosquitoes will fall dramatically.

The reasoning behind such an approach to crop pests is even more attractive. Right now growers spend considerable sums on insecticides to control one particular pest, but an insecticide is also a hazard to other perhaps desirable insects. The introduction of a population of sterile males into the wild population of diamondback moths – in Europe a scourge to the brassica family, which includes cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, mustard, radish, turnip and watercress – would in theory reduce the levels of destruction, limit the use of pesticides and open up the fields to more attractive but less predatory butterflies and moths.

New research has recently opened up a second potent possibility: a genetically modified mosquito could actually transmit genes into the mosquito population that would confer resistance to a pathogen or parasite. In theory the parasite resistance gene would spread rapidly through the wild population of mosquitoes and suppress the source of disease. But without an effective regulation system to authorise trials and development, there is no way of testing such a theory in Britain or Europe.

The report cites one British-based company – a spin-off from University of Oxford research called Oxitec Ltd – as a world leader in that area of research. The firm’s head of regulation, Camilla Beech, said “We are keen to help countries worldwide evaluate this biotechnology for potential use, including in the EU, and Oxitec would be happy to work with the UK government to achieve these goals.”

The Lords committee argues that such technologies could only be part of the approach to the control of disease or agricultural pests. “GM insect technologies,” the report says, “do not represent a panacea.” But the report argues that the UK government should put some pressure on the European Commission to make sure that the regulation system functions effectively.