The Association of Catholic Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (ACMPN), Owerri Archdiocese, in a recent statement warns against the release of genetically modified mosquitoes and risk of infertility of people in West Africa

Malaria is a serious public health issue, affecting millions of people annually. Africa continues to carry a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. Fortunately, since 2000, the malaria death rates in Africa have decreased by 66% among all age groups, and by 71% among children. The declines in malaria incidence and deaths are attributable to extensive and effective use of insecticide treated bed-nets and more effective treatment regimen with Artemisinin-Combination Therapy (ACT). The search for solutions, particularly for vector control, nevertheless continues, due to resistance to the insecticide used in bed-nets.

GMO Mosquitoes Release Has No Health Benefit

The project was given a permit to make an open release of 10,000 genetically modified organisms (GMO) Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes: most likely in the village of Bana, west of Bobo Dioulasso. The GMO mosquitoes were exported from Imperial College in London to Burkina Faso in November 2016 and are currently in “contained use” facilities.

Target Malaria research consortium is an NGO funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation amongst others, plans to release Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) “male-sterile” mosquitoes in Burkina Faso later this year in 2018. Target Malaria acknowledges that there are no benefits to the proposed GMO mosquito release. However, they have not explained what the risks are posed by this release.

Unproven Technology

Target Malaria’s ultimate aim is to make open releases of “gene drive” mosquitoes, with the aim of reducing the population of Anopheles gambiae 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. “Gene drive” is a way of trying to spread genetically engineered traits through a whole population of plants or animals (in this case, mosquitoes).

In this 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.

Could GMO Mosquitoes Cause Human Infertility across Africa?

The GMO mosquitoes proposed for release this year are Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, which have been genetically modified to be male-sterile by a construct that incorporates the Homing Endonuclease Gene (HEG). Target Malaria reports that these GMO mosquitoes have shown 100% infertility: stating that, to date, all eggs laid by females that have mated with these GMO male mosquitoes have been infertile.

However, there is no data to date on the possibility that the saliva of these GMO mosquitoes may or may not incorporate HEG, which could be transmitted on biting humans and cause infertility across Africa. Well founded distrust is mounting, given that the same international sponsors of this project also funded the development of anti-human chorionic gonadotropin (anti-HCG) called the infertility vaccine that was incorporated into tetanus vaccine (and others) administered to women of child-bearing age in Africa, Asia and Latin America to cause infertility without consent. There is fear across Africa that the target of this GMO mosquitoes release may not be malaria, but targets spread of infertility across Africa through bites of GMO mosquitoes.

Calls for ICC Prosecution

ACPMN calls for International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecution of Imperial College London, UK, Burkina Faso, Target Malaria and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Under European Union (EU) law, Imperial College should provide a publicly available environmental risk assessment that meets European standards before exporting GMO insect eggs for open release to foreign countries. This legal requirement arises because GMO insect eggs are live genetically modified organisms (living modified organisms or LMOs) covered by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to which the UK and Burkina Faso are both Parties.

The relevant legal requirements for export are implemented in the UK through the European Regulation (EC) 1946/2003 on transboundary movement of genetically modified organisms. This Regulation requires that the environmental risk assessment (ERA) provided by the exporter meets the EU standards on risk assessment contained in EU Directive 2001/18/EC16.

The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) says it welcomes the decision of the South African biosafety authorities rejecting Monsanto’s application for the commercial release or its genetically modified (GM) drought tolerant triple stacked maize: MON 87460 x MON 89034 x NK 603.

At its meeting on October 2, 2018, the Executive Council: GMO Act, refused to authorise the GM maize for commercial growing as it found that the data provided by Monsanto was insufficient to demonstrate the claimed drought tolerant and insect resistant efficacy of the GM event.

In particular, the EC found that the drought-tolerant field trial data presented by Monsanto for trials conducted over a period of five years (2014-2018) in Hopetown, Orania, Lutzville and Malelane, were sorely wanting.

The EC found that the drought data provided by Monsanto, specifically the kernel count per row and the kernel count per ear data, showed no statistically significant difference between the GM event and conventional maize.

It further found that the yield benefits associated with the GM event were inconsistent and, in some trials, the GM maize had lower yields than that of conventional maize.

Finally, it found that the insect resistant data presented by Monsanto was insufficient as it was collected only from one trial site and then, too, only for a limited number of growing seasons.

The ACB has been rigorously interrogating Monsanto’s GM drought tolerant maize project, which is linked to the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project, for more than 10 years.

ACB’s Executive Director, Mariam Mayet, says: “We are elated with this decision, as we have consistently disputed the veracity of Monsanto’s claims of increased yield performance of MON87460 under water-limited and water-scarce conditions in South Africa.”

The ACB and more than 25,000 people from South Africa, the rest of the continent and around the world signed a petition, rejecting Monsanto’s application on the grounds that the application was not backed by peer-reviewed scientific data and evidence supporting Monsanto’s claim that MON87460 will confer drought tolerance; flawed experimental design to assess the efficacy of the trait; and that potential socio-economic risks posed by MON87460 to smallholder and resource poor farmers had not been considered.

MON 87460 stems from a Monsanto/Gates Foundation project, WEMA project. The project is being implemented in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique, and purports to offer the GM drought tolerant maize to smallholder farmers in Africa as a “Climate Smart” solution to abiotic stresses such as drought. Certain questionable claims have also been made by various scientists associated with the project that Bt maize varieties under the project is a solution to combat the fall army worm (FAW).

Mayet says that they “remain hopeful that we may be taking an important corner in South Africa as evidence emerges of the failure of GM technology. Studies are consistently showing resistance of the African maize stalkborer pest (Busseola fusca) to GM Bt insecticidal maize of single-gene and stacked-gene types.”

“The ACB calls on all African governments to implement holistic strategies, which are already showing efficacy in the field, to support small-holder farmers. These include various agro-ecological strategies such as the intercropping, the ‘push-pull’ system and integrated pest management strategies. These are being implemented in both the Americas and Africa and provide sustainable solutions to the FAW and will not further indebt farmers, compromise their health or that of their surrounding environment,” stresses Sabrina Masinjila, research and outreach officer with the ACB, based in Tanzania.

In a reaction, Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), says: “The rejection of Monsanto’s stacked genetically engineered maize by the South African government is an example that the Nigerian government should learn from and emulate. Our government needs to be circumspect about varieties promoted by corporations and other entities whose drive is for profit, for control and the decimation of local varieties.

“By refusing to authorise the commercialisation because of insufficient evidence that it would be drought tolerant and insect resistant, the South African government illustrates in this case that it pays attention to the concerns consistently expressed by groups such as ACB and the general public. Our governments must not continue to expose our peoples to be hoodwinked and used for experimentations just because weak regulators see.”