Why a photo of this mosquito glowing red has Aussies worried: ‘Could go terribly wrong’

A plan backed by US billionaire Bill Gates to release genetically modified mosquitoes that glow red in the dark in Australia is facing resistance.

The application to release the mosquitoes was submitted by Oxitec, a new partnership between government-funded Australian research agency CSIRO and Britain’s Oxitec Ltd, which has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

If the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator approves the request, the released mosquitoes would be genetically engineered to carry a self-limiting gene that ensures only more non-biting males prevail, while female larvae do not mature.

They would cull female mosquitoes, which bite and transmit viruses such as dengue fever, and over time reduce populations of the insect as a whole.

CSIRO scientific director Professor Brett Sutton said the trial would aim to limit invasive Asian mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti, which carry dengue fever.

Professor Sutton told Channel 10 show The Project that the mosquito population should halve every year and become increasingly harmless males after the genetically modified mosquito eggs were introduced into the wild and hatched by ‘just adding water’.

After this, the population of the targeted insects should halve every few years, Professor Sutton said.

He confirmed that the genetically modified mosquitoes would glow red in the dark.

“They have a protein that is encoded because I think it’s a coral protein that fluoresces red, and that means they can be identified in the wild when they’re introduced,” Professor Sutton said.

‘But even if you stop introducing it, the numbers drop again and you see that fluorescent gene washes away in the population.’

When asked by panellist Hamish Macdonald whether the trial posed a risk of tampering with natural populations, Professor Sutton denied this would be the case.

“Well, we’re talking about an invasive species here, so these are targeting exotic mosquitoes, basically mosquitoes that shouldn’t be there in the numbers they are now,” he replied.

He said the mosquitoes spread a number of harmful diseases such as dengue, Zika, Japanese encephalitis and chikungunya virus.

“Climate change is expanding that range, and so it’s really a return to how things might have been historically,” Professor Sutton said.

However, not everyone is convinced. Independent Senator Gerard Rennick wrote to the Health Minister and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator on Monday to oppose the trial.

“The potential ecological consequences of releasing a new genetically modified mosquito species are extensive,” he wrote.

CSIRO scientific director Professor Brett Sutton said the trial would be limited to disease-carrying invasive Asian mosquitoes

‘There is significant uncertainty about how these mosquitoes will interact with local ecosystems, which could lead to unintended consequences that are impossible to control.

‘Additionally, how would the study determine whether the new mosquito strain was effective in reducing dengue fever, given that dengue fever is virtually non-existent in Queensland?

“I am also concerned that this has been initiated without any consultation with the Australian public. They deserve to be informed and consulted before anything is approved.”

Senator Rennick told Daily Mail Australia he wrote the letter because he was “crushed” by voters who wanted to know what he did to stop the trial.

Libertarian Queensland Senate candidate and farmer Lachlan Lade also released a video on social media opposing the trial.

“This could go terribly wrong,” Lade said in the video on X.

‘There is a potential for genetic transfer to unrelated insect species. We don’t know how this will affect our ecosystems. Mosquitoes are food for numerous species such as bats, birds, dragonflies and fish.

‘Disruption of this food chain could spread through the environment in ways we cannot predict.

“As a Queenslander, I know all too well that government-backed solutions can backfire: the cane toads.”

Cane toads were introduced to Australia from South America in 1935 to control beetles that damaged sugarcane crops but quickly became the much bigger pest.

Gene Technology Regulator Dr. Raj Bhula said the Office of Gene Technology will make public submissions on the trial in March.