http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=23037
Pandora's box: how GM mosquitos could have caused Brazil's microcephaly disaster
Oliver Tickell
1st February 2016
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2987024/pandoras_box_how_gm_mosquitos_could_have_caused_brazils_microcephaly_diasaster.html
In Brazil's microcephaly epidemic, one vital question remains unanswered: how
did the Zika virus suddenly learn how to disrupt the development of human
embryos? The answer may lie in a sequence of 'jumping DNA' used to engineer the
virus's mosquito vector - and released into the wild four years ago in the
precise area of Brazil where the microcephaly crisis is most acute.
These 'promiscuous' transposons have found special favour with genetic
engineers, whose goal is to create 'universal' systems for transferring genes
into any and every species on earth. Almost none of the geneticists has
considered the hazards involved.
Since August 2015, a large number of babies in Northeast Brazil have been born
with very small heads, a condition known as microcephaly, and with other
serious malformations. 4,180 suspected cases have been reported.
Epidemiologists have found a convincing correlation between the incidence of
the natal deformities and maternal infections with the Zika virus, first
discovered in Uganda's Zika Valley in 1947, which normally produces non-serious
illness.
The correlation has been evidenced through the geographical distrubution of
Zika infections and the wave of deformities. Zika virus has also been detected
in the amniotic fluids and other tissues of the affected babies and their
mothers.
This latter finding was recently reported by AS Oliveira Melo et al in a
scientific paper published in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics &
Gynecology, which noted evidence of intra-uterine infection. They also warn:
"As with other intrauterine infections, it is possible that the reported cases
of microcephaly represent only the more severely affected children and that
newborns with less severe disease, affecting not only the brain but also other
organs, have not yet been diagnosed."
The Brazilian Health Minister, Marcelo Castro, says he has "100% certainty"
that there is a link between Zika and microcephaly. His view is supported by
the medical community worldwide, including by the US Center for Disease Control.
Oliveira Melo et al draw attention to a mystery that lies at the heart of the
affair: "It is difficult to explain why there have been no fetal cases of Zika
virus infection reported until now but this may be due to the underreporting of
cases, possible early acquisition of immunity in endemic areas or due to the
rarity of the disease until now.
"As genomic changes in the virus have been reported, the possibility of a new,
more virulent, strain needs to be considered. Until more cases are diagnosed
and histopathological proof is obtained, the possibility of other etiologies
cannot be ruled out."
And this is the key question: how - if indeed Zika really is the problem, as
appears likely - did this relatively innocuous virus acquire the ability to
produce these terrible malformations in unborn human babies?
Oxitec's GM mosquitoes
An excellent article by Claire Bernish published last week on AntiMedia draws
attention to an interesting aspect of the matter which has escaped mainstream
media attention: the correlation between the incidence of Zika and the area of
release of genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitos engineered for male
insterility (see maps, above right).
The purpose of the release was to see if it controlled population of the
mosquitos, which are the vector of Dengue fever, a potentially lethal disease.
The same species also transmits the Zika virus.
The releases took in 2011 and 2012 in the Itaberaba suburb of the city of
Juazeiro, Bahia, Northeast Brazil, about 500 km west of ther coastal city of
Recife. The experiment was written up in July 2015 in the journal PLOS
Neglected Tropical Diseases in a paper titled 'Suppression of a Field
Population of Aedes aegypti in Brazil by Sustained Release of Transgenic Male
Mosquitoes' by Danilo O. Carvalho et al.
An initial 'rangefinder of 30,000 GM mosquitos per week took place between 19th
May and 29th June 2011, followed by a much larger release of 540,000 per week
in early 2012, ending on 11th February.
At the end of it the scientists claimed "effective control of a wild population
of Ae. aegypti by sustained releases of OX513A male Ae. aegypti. We diminished
Ae. aegypti population by 95% (95% CI: 92.2%-97.5%) based on adult trap data
and 78% (95% CI: 70.5%-84.8%) based on ovitrap indices compared to the adjacent
no-release control area."
So what's to worry about?
The idea of the Oxitec mosquitoes is simple enough: the males produce
non-viable offspring which all die. So the GM mosqitoes are
'self-extinguishing' and the altered genes cannot survive in the wild
population. All very clever, and nothing to worry about!
But in fact, it's not so simple. In 2010 geneticist Ricarda Steinbrecher wrote
to the biosafety regulator in Malaysia - also considering a release of the
Oxitec mosquitoes - with a number of safety concerns, pointing out the 2007
finding by Phuc et al that 3-4% of the first generation mosquitos actually
survive.
The genetic engineerig method employed by Oxitec allows the popular antibiotic
tetracycline to be used to repress the lethality during breeding. But as a
side-effect, the lethality is also reduced by the presence of tetracycline in
the environment; and as Bernish points out, Brazil is among the world's biggest
users of anti-microbials including tetracycline in its commercial farming
sector:
"As a study by the American Society of Agronomy, et. al., explained, 'It is
estimated that approximately 75% of antibiotics are not absorbed by animals and
are excreted in waste.' One of the antibiotics (or antimicrobials) specifically
named in that report for its environmental persistence is tetracycline.
In fact, as a confidential internal Oxitec document divulged in 2012, that
survival rate could be as high as 15% - even with low levels of tetracycline
present. 'Even small amounts of tetracycline can repress' the engineered
lethality. Indeed, that 15% survival rate was described by Oxitec."
She then quotes the leaked Oxitec paper: "After a lot of testing and comparing
experimental design, it was found that [researchers] had used a cat food to
feed the [OX513A] larvae and this cat food contained chicken. It is known that
tetracycline is routinely used to prevent infections in chickens, especially in
the cheap, mass produced, chicken used for animal food. The chicken is
heat-treated before being used, but this does not remove all the tetracycline.
This meant that a small amount of tetracycline was being added from the food to
the larvae and repressing the [designed] lethal system."
So in other words, there is every possibility for Oxitec's modified genes to
persist in wild populations of Aedes aegypti mosquitos, especially in the
environmental presence of tetracycline which is widely present in sewage,
septic tanks, contaminated water sources and farm runoff.
'Promiscuous' jumping genes
On the face of it, there is no obvious way in which the spread of Oxitec's GM
mosquitos into the wild could have anything to do with Brazil's wave of
micrcophaly. Is there?
Actually, yes. The problem may arise from the use of the 'transposon'
('jumping' sequence of DNA used in the genetic engineering process to introduce
the new genes into the target organism). There are several such DNA sequences
in use, and one of the most popular is known as known as piggyBac.
As a 2001 review article by Dr Mae Wan Ho shows, piggyBac is notoriously
active, inserting itself into genes way beyond its intended target: "These
'promiscuous' transposons have found special favour with genetic engineers,
whose goal is to create 'universal' systems for transferring genes into any and
every species on earth. Almost none of the geneticists has considered the
hazards involved ...
"It would seem obvious that integrated transposon vectors may easily jump out
again, to another site in the same genome, or to the genome of unrelated
species. There are already signs of that in the transposon, piggyBac, used in
the GM bollworms to be released by the USDA this summer.
The piggyBac transposon was discovered in cell cultures of the moth
Trichopulsia, the cabbage looper, where it caused high rates of mutations in
the baculovirus infecting the cells by jumping into its genes ... This
transposon was later found to be active in a wide range of species, including
the fruitfly Drosophila, the mosquito transmitting yellow fever, Aedes aegypti,
the medfly, Ceratitis capitata, and the original host, the cabbage looper.
"The piggyBac vector gave high frequencies of transpositions, 37 times higher
than mariner and nearly four times higher than Hirmar."
In a later 2014 report Dr Mae Wan Ho returned to the theme with additional
detail and fresh scientific evidence (please refer to her original article for
references): "The piggyBac transposon was discovered in cell cultures of the
moth Trichopulsia, the cabbage looper, where it caused high rates of mutations
in the baculovirus infecting the cells by jumping into its genes ...
"There is also evidence that the disabled piggyBac vector carrying the
transgene, even when stripped down to the bare minimum of the border repeats,
was nevertheless able to replicate and spread, because the transposase enzyme
enabling the piggyBac inserts to move can be provided by transposons present in
all genomes.
"The main reason initially for using transposons as vectors in insect control
was precisely because they can spread the transgenes rapidly by 'non-Mendelian'
means within a population, i.e., by replicating copies and jumping into
genomes, thereby 'driving' the trait through the insect population. However,
the scientists involved neglected the fact that the transposons could also jump
into the genomes of the mammalian hosts including human beings ...
"In spite of instability and resulting genotoxicity, the piggyBac transposon
has been used extensively also in human gene therapy. Several human cell lines
have been transformed, even primary human T cells using piggyBac. These
findings leave us little doubt that the transposon-borne transgenes in the
transgenic mosquito can transfer horizontally to human cells. The piggyBac
transposon was found to induce genome wide insertion mutations disrupting many
gene functions."
Has the GM nightmare finally come true?
So down to the key question: was the Oxitec's GM Aedes aegypti male-sterile
mosquito released in Juazeiro engineered with the piggyBac transposon? Yes, it
was. And that creates a highly significant possibility: that Oxitec's release
of its GM mosquitos led directly to the development of Brazil's microcephaly
epidemic through the following mechanism:
1. Many of the millions of Oxitec GM mosquitos released in Juazeiro in
2011/2012 survive, assisted, but not dependent on, the presence of tetracycline
in the environment.
2. These mosquitos interbreed with with the wild population and their novel
genes become widespread.
3. The promiscuous piggyBac transposon now present in the local Aedes aegypti
population takes the opportunity to jump into the Zika virus, probably on
numerous occasions.
4. In the process certain mutated strains of Zika acquire a selective
advantage, making them more virulent and giving them an enhanced ability to
enter and disrupt human DNA.
5. One way in which this manifests is by disrupting a key stage in the
development of human embryos in the womb, causing microcepahy and the other
reported deformations. Note that as Melo Oliveira et al warn, there are almost
certainly other manifestations that have not yet been detected.
6. It may be that the piggyBac transposon has itself entered the DNA of babies
exposed in utero to the modified Zika virus. Indeed, this may form part of the
mechanism by which embryonic development is disrupted.
In the latter case, one implication is that the action of the gene could be
blocked by giving pregnant women tetracycline in order to block its activity.
The chances of success are probably low, but it has to be worth trying.
No further releases of GM insects!
While I am certainly not claiming that this is what actually took place, it is
at least a credible hypothesis, and moreover a highly testable one. Nothing
would be easier for genetic engineers than to test amniotic fluids, babies'
blood, wild Aedes mosquitos and the Zika virus itself for the presence of the
piggyBac transposon, using well established and highly sensitive PCR
(polymerase chain reaction) techniques.
If this proves to be the case, those urging caution on the release of GMOs
generally, and transgenic insects bearing promiscuous transposons in
particular, will have been proved right on all counts.
But most important, such experiments, and any deployment of similar GM insects,
must be immediately halted until the possibilities outlined above can be safely
ruled out. There are plans, for example, to release similarly modified
Anopheles mosquitos as an anti-malarial measure.
There are also calls for even more of the Oxitec Aedes aegypti mosquitos to be
released in order to halt the transmission of the Zika virus. If that were to
take place, it could give rise to numerous new mutations of the virus with the
potential to cause even more damage to the human genome, that we can, at this
stage, only guess at.
Oliver Tickell edits The Ecologist.
--
--
Please consider seriously the reason why these elite institutions are not
discussed in the mainstream press despite the immense financial and political
power they wield?
There are sick and evil occultists running the Western World. They are power
mad lunatics like something from a kids cartoon with their fingers on the
nuclear button! Armageddon is closer than you thought. Only God can save our
souls from their clutches, at least that's my considered opinion - Tony
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