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 In what they said could be a pesticide-free and
environmentally-friendly way to control insect pests, the
scientists, from the Oxford University spinout company Oxitec,
developed diamondback moths with a "self-limiting gene" which
dramatically reduced populations in greenhouse trials.
The self-limiting gene technique has already been tested against
dengue fever-carrying mosquitoes, cutting their populations by over
90 percent in trials in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands.
"This research is opening new doors for the future of farming with
pest control methods that are non-toxic and pesticide-free," said
Neil Morrison, an Oxitec research scientist who led the study.
According to the researchers, whose work was published in the
journal BioMed Central Biology, the struggle with diamondback moths
in cruciferous vegetable production costs farmers around the world
up to $5 billion a year.
 Tony Shelton, an entomology professor at Cornell University in the
United States who worked with Morrison, said neither conventional
nor organic pesticides can control the moths.
"Diamondback is a serious problem for farmers in New York State and
around the world – anywhere cruciferous vegetables and field crops
are grown," he said. "These moths invade and attack the crops, and
they are developing resistance to insecticides, so we urgently need
new tools to better control them."
The researchers genetically engineered male moths that can mate just
as well as the non-GM insects, but only produce male offspring. In
greenhouse trials, releasing the GM moths into the population
resulted in a crash in moth numbers within eight weeks.
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The scientists said that unlike insecticides, which can affect a
range of insects including bees, the genetic modification approach
is purely species-specific, only affecting the targeted pest. The
self-limiting gene is also non-toxic, so birds or other animals
eating the moths get no harmful effects.
Independent experts welcomed Oxitec's success.
"If the results can be replicated in the field then it would
represent a big step forward in eco-friendly ways of controlling
insect disease and improving food production," said Johnjoe
McFadden, a professor of molecular genetics at Britain's University
of Surrey.
Shelton now plans follow-up studies to test the Oxitec moths under
harsher, outdoor conditions in upstate New York.
These studies, already approved by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, will include field cage tests this summer, he said,
with plans for small-scale field releases in future.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent;
Editing by Tom Brown)
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