Virus alert
the development of a genetically engineered virus as a birth control measure is causing controversy in Australia. The virus has been developed to contain the growing populations of mice and other pests.
Some scientists say the contraceptive viruses could prove to be an ecological disaster if non-targeted species are infected with it. They stress that the risk in modified viruses is too high for them to be released. The researchers themselves are apprehensive of the virus escaping from a country where the target species is a pest, to another where it is valued ( New Scientist , Vol 154, No 2079).
The need to be extremely cautious arises due to the effectiveness of the modified contraceptive virus."The technology has immense potential," says Lyn Hinds, deputy director of research at the Vertebrate Biocontrol Cooperative Research Centre, Canberra that is carrying out the research in association with Australian National University, Canberra, among others.
Contraceptive vaccines, that trick the body into treating proteins from eggs or sperms as foreign invaders - triggering the production of antibodies that prevent fertilisation - are being tested worldwide. This could also act as a human contraceptive besides controlling animal populations. But the technique being developed by the Australian scientists goes one step further. A gene for a protein found on the protective layer surrounding the egg is put into the virus in the technique devised by Hinds and his team. Antibodies are produced in the infected mice, that in turn spread the virus.
This method has been successful in the laboratory. Researchers introduced a gene that codes for a protein called zp3 into a virus that infects laboratory mice. Of the 13 infected females, nine had no offspring. The remaining four females produced two pups each. Mice infected with the virus without the gene for zp3 produced litters of six or more pups each. Apart from preventing fertilisation, the genetically modulated virus also disrupts the formation of egg cells in the ovaries, functioning as a contraceptive for six months.
Besides Australia, countries interested in using the contraceptive virus include Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, where field rats destroy paddy crops. But the opposition to the introduction of the virus cannot be ignored. The risk of the virus travelling by natural processes unimpeded by international boundaries cannot be overlooked. Jay Kirkpatrick, expert in wildlife contraception at ZooMontana, a zoological institute in Billings, Montana, says scientists should not rely on laboratory tests and infer that a virus affects only the target species. "What safeguards do we have that it won't mutate and infect other species?"
It is a long way before the findings are implemented. The need for a widescale debate on the issue is obvious as the stakes are too high. On the one hand is the requirement for cheap and effective contraceptive for pests; and on the other hand is the prospect of a major ecological problem.
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