was lyme disease genetically engineered

Also, white-footed mice have no close relatives with which they could hybridize on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard, so questions about gene flow to other species via hybridization are moot. Smith RP, Rand PW, Lacombe EH, Telford SRIII, Rich SM, Piesman J, Spielman A. Genetic engineering of wild populations has been proposed for reducing human diseases by altering pathogens’ hosts. The first is that Lyme disease originated on Plum Island, and by "originated" we could only mean "a genetically modified single celled organism" and not born or created. The proposal comes as Island biologists and health experts are pressing for expanded deer hunts as a way to interrupt the life cycle of ticks, which carry a number of diseases and … Also, several of the team's grant proposals and community presentations are available online at www.responsivescience.org/mice-against-ticks. As with any ambitious, long-term research project, the research plan is likely to be modified as the work progresses, pending initial outcomes and benchmarks. Another consideration is whether the island populations of white-footed mice are distinct enough to merit special conservation status. Ostfeld RS, Brisson D, Oggenfuss K, Devine J, Levy MZ, Keesing F. Piesman J, Donahue JG, Mather TN, Spielman A. Piesman J, Mather TN, Dammin GJ, Telford SR, Lastavica CC, Spielman A. Rand PW, Lacombe EH, Smith RP, Rich SM, Kilpatrick CW, Dragone CA, Caporale D. Richer LM, Brisson D, Melo R, Ostfeld RS, Zeidner N, Gomes-Solecki M. Schwanz LE, Voordouw MJ, Brisson D, Ostfeld RS. The Environmental Protection Agency also could become involved if the GE white-footed mice are endowed with an antitick cassette and if this is viewed as a type of “pesticide” (NASEM 2017). Therefore, the combined effects of other reservoir species and any remaining non-GE white-footed mice could hinder the project's intended impact on Lyme disease. Since I became involved in this subject, I have received many letters from others who suffer from Lyme Disease, and I am extremely grateful for their help in providing information for my articles. Experimenting with genetically modified rodents. Search for other works by this author on: Box 1. Lyme Disease Support Group. www.responsivescience.org/mice-against-ticks, https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model, Receive exclusive offers and updates from Oxford Academic. The rash is typically neither itchy nor painful. Plum Island comes under the control of DHS: “On November 21, 2002, President Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to unify Federal forces and protect our Nation from a new host of terrorist threats. On the basis of my informal inquiries, federal agencies appear to be waiting for a concrete application to be submitted before they are able to identify which regulations and procedures would apply. Noncompliance with legal or regulatory requirements, or with ethical standards for research and deployment of GE animals. “We’re making mice that are 100 percent white-footed mice, but can’t be reservoirs for tick-borne diseases,” Esvelt said. and other nut-producing trees that sustain rodents and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), effects of predators such as red fox (Vulpes vulpes), coyote (Canus latrans), and bobcat (Lynx rufus) on small mammal populations, and local densities of deer, which are a major host for adult ticks but do not function as reservoir species (e.g., Ostfeld et al. With 300,000 people in the United States falling ill with Lyme disease every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control, chances are there are others who, like Forando, are unaware a vaccine ever hit pharmaceutical shelves. Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium. Kyrou K, Hammond AM, Galizi R, Kranjc N, Burt A, Beaghton AK, Nolan T, Crisanti A. Levi T, Kilpatrick AM, Mangel M, Wilmers CC. Irvine breeds genetically engineered mosquitoes to study, for example, whether they can be made malaria-resistant. 2011, Voordouw et al. However, the research team expects that established populations of Lyme-resistant white-footed mice would deplete a major reservoir source for transmission of the spirochete, thereby significantly decreasing the proportion of Lyme-infected blacklegged ticks over time, and perhaps initiating a self-reinforcing feedback loop (personal communication, Kevin Esvelt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, March 8, 2019, and Sam Telford III, Tufts University, March 7, 2019). Because many residents have expressed an interest in proceeding quickly if the community as a whole approves, one plan is to release tens to hundreds of thousands of these GE white-footed mice in the early spring, when local mouse populations are their lowest level annually, in an effort to reproductively flood these populations. Little interplot movement would be expected because white-footed mice have a relatively small home range (Wolff 1985, Tsao et al. Can a transgenic chestnut restore a forest icon? The numbers fall a little for those aged around 20-29, but rise again after the age of 30, peaking at an age group of 60-69. Tick-borne disease has been rising over the past few decades and mice are seen as the main reservoir for the bacteria that cause Lyme and other diseases. According to res… See the text for details and supplemental table 1 for the species found on the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard versus the mainland. I thank Kevin Esvelt, Sam Telford III, and Joanna Buchthal for posting information about this project on their website (www.responsivescience.org) and checking this description of their project for accuracy; Thomas French, Lisle Gibbs, Emily Goldstein, John Harder, Luanne Johnson, Hans Klompen, Jennifer Kuzma, Taal Levi, Philip Myers, Richard Ostfeld, Matthew Pelican, Werner Schenkel, and several anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on the manuscript. However, possible long-term consequences of releasing wild animals gene drives are not well understood (Webber et al. Although white-footed mice are probably too small to serve as a breeding carcass for the federally endangered American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus), which has been reintroduced on Nantucket, adult burying beetles are known to feed on dead white-footed mice (Holloway and Schnell 1997, Mckenna-Foster et al. Shrews are more difficult to census accurately than white-footed mice, and standard live-trapping methods underestimate their abundance (Harder et al. Facilitating the introduction and establishment of new pests or pathogens. After testing the efficacy of the most promising antibodies and various types of promoters to enhance gene expression, the team plans to design a resistance cassette, with multiple antibody-encoding genes. 2) Many Lyme and Gulf War Illness patients are infected with the same genetically engineered organism (mycoplasma fermentens) created and patented by the US Government. We must also hope that some doctors do the same, as there have been many reports of sufferers being wrongly diagnosed and treated badly when they have requested further investigation. 1991, LoGiudice et al. CRISPR-based genome editing will be used to insert the resistance cassette into white-footed mouse lines, possibly with multiple copies of the resistance cassette in each mouse. Genetic engineering of wild populations has been proposed for reducing human diseases by altering pathogens’ hosts. ''I'm here because I don't want to go through Lyme again,'' Ms. Kaufmann said as the genetically engineered vaccine entered her arm. According to the USDA “There are no secrets at Plum Island,” but are they really telling us everything? 1993); Norway rat, Rattus norvegicus (Monhegan, Maine; Smith et al. 3) Lyme Disease and Gulf War Illness share almost identical symptoms. Resampling island and mainland populations using modern approaches such as whole genome sequencing combined with phenotypic data would be a useful starting point for reevaluating the extent of genetic divergence among these groups, as well as genetic diversity within populations (Ellegren 2014, Coates et al. 1987, www.cdc.gov; see supplemental Figure 1). Many Lyme disease and Gulf war patients are infected with the genetically engineered organism (mycoplasma fermentens) thus Lyme and Gulf War disease symptoms are almost identical. To my knowledge, this would be the first application of genetic engineering for the intentional, uncontained release of a wild mammal in the United States or elsewhere. If the community were to support releasing the genetically-engineered mice into the wild, it would theoretically break the transmission cycle of the disease further down the food chain from the deer. The current plan is to iteratively outcross GE white-footed mice with local island populations. There is a very strong connection between the current growth of Lyme Disease infections and the research center on Plum Island. In formal environmental risk assessments for regulatory decision-making, researchers attempt to identify specific, measurable hazards and the likelihood of such hazards (e.g., Hayes et al. Can be highly subjective, context specific, and diverse or with ethical standards for research and of. 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