Tag: Oxitec
MRCU boss denies dead bees linked to spraying
(CNS): Mosquito Research and Control Unit Director Dr Jim McNelly told Finance Committee on Tuesday that the MRCU has no evidence to link its work with anecdotal claims of dead bees. McNelly has not yet responded to enquiries by CNS, following reports by concerned readers last week that several people saw a significant number of […]
GM mozzies pass on altered gene
(CNS): The genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes developed by Oxitec may have impacted the actual genetics of the natural mosquito populations where these bio engineered bugs were released, scientists have found. Following a release in Brazil, similar to the one in the Cayman Islands, researchers who monitored the release said that up to 30 months after the […]
Oxitec packs up but evaluation not complete
(CNS): The controversial research project which saw genetically modified sterile male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes released into an area of West Bay in a collaboration between the Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) and the bio-technology company Oxitec has come to a formal end. However, details of what happened, what went right or wrong, why the government went […]
MRCU to stop releasing GM mosquitoes
(CNS): The Mosquito Research and Control Unit has admitted that it has stopped the release of Oxitec’s genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Grand Cayman, claiming that it is moving into a monitoring phase just a few months after it entered a deal with the bio-engineering firm in May.
MRCU aims to eradicate Aedes aegypti
(CNS): The Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) has created a board made up largely of international and global technical experts with the ambitious goal of eradicating the Aedes aegypti mosquito from Grand Cayman. The creation of this specialist advisory board was revealed in a press release from government, which said the board would provide input on […]
MRCU signs new $600k deal with Oxitec
(CNS): Despite recent revelations that the pilot project using genetically modified male mosquitoes to reduce the Aedes aegypti population fell far short of expectations, the government has signed a new deal with biotechnology company, Oxitec, to continue releasing them. The contract is costing the public purse around CI$588,000 and appears to be not much more than a […]
GM mozzie trial in WB may have failed
(CNS): Documents and correspondence released to GeneWatch, a UK-based NGO, under a freedom of information request appear to show that there is no evidence that the controversial release of genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in West Bay by Oxitec in co-ordination with the Cayman Islands Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) made any impact on the […]
Success of GM mozzie project queried by MRCU
(CNS): Government has cancelled a planned national roll-out of the controversial genetically modified mosquito project by the UK-based firm Oxitec. Nancy Barnard, the acting director of the Mosquito Research and Control Unit, told CNS that the decision not to expand the experimental method for suppressing the Aedes aegypti was due to budget cuts. However, it appears […]
Oxitec bio-bugs ‘ineffective and risky’, claim activists
(CNS): The UK-based anti-GM charity and research group, GeneWatch UK, has taken aim at the project in which millions of bio-engineered mosquitoes were released in the Cayman Islands. In the wake of the Mosquito Research and Control Unit’s first annual report on the progress of the project, the activists called into question the efficiency, effectiveness […]
GM project cuts mozzies by over 80%
(CNS): There has been a dramatic fall in the number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in West Bay, where genetically modified bugs have been released in a pilot project to get as near as possible to eradicating the disease-spreading pest. Over the last six months the MRCU, in partnership with a private UK bio-technology firm, has […]
NGOs query GM mosquito success risk
(CNS) UPDATED 5 Oct, with Oxitec comment: Admissions by Oxitec, the UK company partnering with the Mosquito Research and Control Unit here in Cayman, that the space created by the successful eradication of the Aedes aegypti through the use of its genetically modified insects could pave the way for a second disease-carrying species has some […]
