The use of gene editing to create gene drives for pest control in New Zealand

Tags: Gene drive synthetic, Gene editing, Invasive species, Oceania, Policy, Regulation, Risk and safety
Royal Society Te Apārangi Gene Editing Panel, Royal Society of New Zealand, 2017.

The revolution in gene editing technologies is making it easier to change genetic material with huge potential benefits in many sectors including healthcare, agriculture and conservation. However, the technology to carry out gene editing and the ideas about how it might be applied are, in many cases, moving well ahead of the knowledge about how to safely effect the desired changes. For example, in conservation applications, gene editing could be used to make a native species resistant to disease, but this might accidentally make it more susceptible to drought. As a technology, gene editing is rapidly moving ahead of any consensus on the rights and wrongs of how it should be used. So to explore the implications of gene editing technology for New Zealand, the Royal Society Te Apārangi has convened a multidisciplinary panel of some of New Zealand’s leading experts to consider the social, cultural, legal and economic implications of revolutionary gene-editing technologies for New Zealand to: • Raise awareness of the scientific possibilities and associated public issues of new gene editing technologies to inform debate • Provide information and guidance for policy makers to address current and new issues needing to be clarified or resolved • Show where gene-editing applications are covered by established policies and regulations and where changes are needed • Provide a New Zealand perspective to the global discussion on this technology and identify where global consensus is important This paper is one of a series1 considering the implications of the technology in health, pest control, and agricultural situations, and is accompanied by a companion discussion paper inviting public feedback, and a fact sheet on how these technologies work and are being used and applied [1]. To help consider the implications for pest control in New Zealand, this paper2 highlights three scenarios which raise specific considerations for three different types of pest. In particular, these case studies consider: ● The range of scientific complexities of developing a gene drive for different organisms ● The implications for the spread of animals with the gene drive to different countries.