CSOs raise alarm over genetically-engineered mosquitoes in Nigeria

Tags: Africa, Gene drive synthetic, Genetically modified mosquitoes, Genetically modified organisms, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safety
A. Oboh, Vanguard, 2020.

No fewer than 75 civil society organisations, CSOs, across the world have raised the alarm over moves to release genetically-modified mosquitoes in Nigeria, noting that the country was about to be used as a guinea pig for the project, which will endanger humans, biodiversity and to ecosystem balance. The CSOs noted that the shortcoming of transgenic mosquitoes was evident from the experiments done in Brazil and in Burkina Faso.

According to them, “while we appreciate that malaria is a problem in Nigeria and many other nations and that urgent measures to address it are needed, we believe that transgenic mosquitoes are not the solution.” Recall that on Friday, June 6, at a virtual meeting of the West African Integrated Vector Management Programme, Rufus Ebegba, Vice Chairman of the Programme and Director of Nigeria’s National Biosafety Management Agency, NBMA, said: “There is the need to accelerate the development of regulatory pathways for genetically-based vector control methods such as transgenic mosquitoes.”