We are most appreciative of the National Biosafety Board (NBB) and Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC) within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) for their efforts to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the genetically modified (GM) Mosquito.

However, this evaluation was apparently conducted with little or no input from the public at large as evidenced by the numerous questions that have been raised.

This is a major oversight that can only lead to rejection of the GM mosquito programme.

Further, there has been little discussion or disclosure of the economic requirements to implement the GM mosquito programme for dengue control - a programme that will necessitate the release of multiple tens of billions of the GM mosquito.

What will be the financial cost of such a large programme?

It has recently come to light that the GM male mosquito OX513A, which is supposed to be sterile, in fact produces viable offspring at a 3 - 4 percent rate.

This means that the genetic elements that have been introduced into the GM mosquito will now exist in the mosquito population at large with unknown consequences.

The survival of GM mosquitoes means that resistance to the sterile males will spread through the mosquito population at large.

Will we be breeding a new mosquito species that can no longer be controlled and that will go on to develop resistance to our present mosquito control procedures?

Or even develop further to transmit other viruses that infect humans, such as HIV?

What assurance is there that in 5, 10, or even 100 years that the introduced genetic elements will not be transferred to another beneficial insect or higher organism?

What would the economic consequences be if suddenly the oil palm pollinating weevil - of major economic importance to Malaysia - acquired the sterility trait and no longer was available to pollinate the oil palm trees?

The dengue virus is not just transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito whose infection originated with a prior human. It is also transmitted through trans-ovarian infection, which means the eggs that the infected female mosquito lays are also infected.

This can translate into the GM mosquito becoming the vector for dengue - just the opposite of the intended impact!

Are we prepared for this eventuality?

We are not simply talking about a new way to introduce "sterile" male insects to control an agricultural pest insect. The mosquito is humankind's most mortal enemy that reproduces at a prodigious rate.

NRE asserts that the "precautionary principle" has been fulfilled in the course of their evaluation. But what we need with the GM mosquito is to follow the "EXTREME precautionary principle"!

Mother Nature will find a way!