Earlier this year, UK company Oxitec applied to make mass experimental releases of millions of male GM olive fruit flies in Spain and GM Mediterranean fruit flies (Medfly) in Brazil. The company has also stated that it plans to release GM olive flies in Italy, Greece and Morocco. The female offspring of the flies are genetically programmed to die at the larval stage, in an attempt to crash the numbers of wild pests. However, large numbers of dead larvae (maggots) are expected to remain inside olives and fruit, where fruit flies lay their eggs, and to enter the food chain. The use of a “female-killing” approach means live male larvae (and any surviving female larvae) could also be transported around the world in contaminated fruit. Read more: Contamination Danger: GM Fruit Flies Set for Mass Releases in Spain and Brazil fracturedparadigm/2013/09/12/contamination-danger-gm-fruit-flies-set-for-mass-releases-in-spain-and-brazil/#ixzz2fAxBBw00
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 18:23:20 +0000
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