A Facebook user has posted a series of screenshots from the World Mosquito Program (WMP) website, along with news headlines claiming that genetically modified insects have been released in Australia. However, the WMP told Reuters this allegation was false.
The report, from March 13, consists of a total of seven screenshots (here). Five are from the WMP website that discusses the release of mosquitoes with bacteria in Northern Australia (worldmosquitoprogram.org). One comes from the British tabloid The Sun, with the headline: “Bill Gates donates £ 3 million to create mosquitoes that kill each other with SEX” (here). The last screenshot shows another headline taken from CBS Miami. It reads: “Bill Gates fights for the end of mosquito-borne diseases” (here).
The compilation of all the images in one post, and the Facebook user then implies that this is a proof of his argument. ‘Did you know that they release genetically modified mosquitoes in Australia? Source: mosquitoprogram.org, ”he writes in the main section of the report.
None of the screenshots provide proof of this. First, the WMP website has nothing to do with genetic engineering. It discusses the process of breeding Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia, a type of bacterium that makes the insect less likely to transmit specific viruses to humans (here).
“The mosquitoes we release are not genetically modified,” a WMP spokesman told Reuters in an email. “Wolbachia is a natural bacterium in 60% of insects. Our process of injecting Wolbachia into Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes does not alter the genetic material of the Wolbachia bacterium or the mosquito. ”
In 2019, Dr Richard Gair, the director of Tropical Public Health Services in Cairns, Australia, attributed the WMP project to mostly eliminating the dengue virus in the dengue-prone areas (here). This result came after Cairns recorded one of its worst dengue outbreaks during the 2008/09 wet season.
“There was a significant public health response at the time, and thereafter the World Mosquito Program (WMP), formerly Eliminate Dengue, released mosquitoes with Wolbachia bacteria in 2011,” Gair said. “The implementation of the WMP’s Wolbachia approach, together with our program for the monitoring and spraying of mosquitoes, has been very effective in preventing outbreaks in this region.”
Meanwhile, the last two screenshots included in the Facebook post are not related to the WMP. The CBS headline refers to an article about Bill Gates that promises more money to fight tropical diseases in general, while The Sun’s headline refers to Gates donating to a British company that examines genetically modified mosquitoes.
Oxitec, a biotechnology company, has released genetically modified mosquitoes with a self-limiting gene in Brazil (here), the Cayman Islands (here) and Panama (here). It also plans to release the insects in Florida and Texas (here). A company spokesman told Reuters that such a release had not taken place in Australia.
The WMP spokesperson told Reuters they believe no genetically modified mosquitoes have been released in Australia. However, studies are being done in safe Australian laboratories on mosquitoes and fruit flies (here, here, here). Scientists involved in the mosquito study have also noted that a lot of work will be needed to encourage community involvement before anything can be released (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. While genetically modified mosquitoes have been released in some countries, they have not been released in Australia. The World Mosquito Program has released mosquitoes injected with Wolbachia bacteria – but this method does not involve genetic modification.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.