Insect 'birth control' may be tested in Caribbean

Aedes aegypti mosquito

OXFORD, England, December 3, 2007 - Scientists in England is eying the Caribbean as one of the possible locations for field trials of a new technique to control the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue fever.

Oxitec, a company that grew out of Oxford University, said it has genetically engineered male mosquitoes, which it proposes to release in the wild to mate with female mosquitoes. The end result, said chief scientist, Dr Luke Alphey, is no new generation of the mosquito.

Until now the technique used was to use radiation to make the insect sterile but he said this was often expensive and not 100% effective.

Oxitec says that its Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is something like birth control for insects that has been used successfully Mediterranean fruit fly that attacks citrus crops as well as the Pink Bollworm, which infests cotton crops.

He said that companies which produce the sterile Mediterranean fruit flies in Nicaragua turns out about three billion flies per week for use in citrus growing areas of Central America and California.

Since dengue fever has become one of the major global health priorities, Dr Alphey said that attention has returned to the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

So far the sterile mosquitoes have been tested in the lab with "extremely encouraging" results and the next step is to take it into the field.

Dr Alphey, Oxitec's founder and chief scientist, said his company was now negotiating with governments in south east Asia, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. He did not say specifically which countries he had in mind.

Oxitec was just named as a Technology Pioneer 2008, the World Economic Forum. It was one of 39 named from a field of 273 nominees.

Oxitec said that previous Technology Pioneers tended to be business companies, such as Google, but this is one of the few times that a science company has been selected for its business approach to a scientific solution.

"This prize is an external validation of our technology and our business plan," Dr Alphey said.

"It is very useful when speaking with companies and governments because it is not just a technology which we think is okay but which an independent valuator says is okay."

The pioneers will participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 in Switzerland and the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China next year.