Release of altered mosquitoes in Hawaii’s forests is questioned

A multiagency plan to release tens of millions of imported mosquitoes into the wild to help save Hawaii’s endangered forest birds is generating fears of unintended consequences.

More than 100 people wrote testimony to a state Department of Agriculture advisory panel objecting to the proposal, many of them arguing that the long-term impacts of releasing genetically engineered, or genetically modified, mosquitoes is unknown.

Among them was Hilo’s Michelle Melendez of the group ForOurRights.org, which has been urging opposition to the plan on social media.

“People need to wake up to what our leaders are doing to our environment,” Melendez, a small-business owner, said in a phone interview. “This is like a horror sci-fi film.”

Scientists and state officials, however, say these folks have the wrong information. The technique that is being proposed to prepare the imported mosquitoes does not involve manipulating the genome.

“It’s not adding or deleting to the organism’s actual DNA,” said Jonathan Ho, Inspection and Compliance Section chief with the state Department of Agriculture.

While testimony against the proposal was substantial, there were nearly as many submittals from supporters. The Plant and Animal Advisory Committee gave its unanimous endorsement Thursday, sending a recommendation for approval to the Board of Agriculture, which is tentatively scheduled to meet later this month.

If approved, the department would list the southern house mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus) as a restricted species, allowing the importation of the creature responsible for dramatic declines in the populations of honeycreeper species on Kauai, Maui and Hawaii island.

While that might sound counterintuitive, it’s all part of a plan to save four critically endangered honeycreepers from extinction.

The problem is that the mosquitoes are spreading avian malaria and killing the native birds at increasing rates. Warmer temperatures linked to climate change have only made the problem worse, driving the birds into ever higher and remote locations across the islands.

Despite extensive conservation efforts, there are only an estimated 45 akikiki now remaining in the wild on Kauai and 135 kiwikiu left in the wild on Maui. Scientists say they could go extinct in less than two years without some kind of help.

A coalition of state and federal agencies and private conservation groups has formed under the name Birds, Not Mosquitoes and is proposing something big: introducing incompatible male mosquitoes into the habitats of the akikiki and akekee on Kauai and kiwikiu and akohekohe on Maui in a bold move to suppress the populations of wild mosquitoes.

The method involves transferring a naturally occurring “birth control” bacteria to mosquitoes in a lab. Only male mosquitoes, which don’t bite birds or people and, therefore, don’t transmit diseases, would be released into the wild. These male mosquitoes would mate with wild female mosquitoes, whose eggs would not hatch.

The state in May announced a $14 million influx of federal funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law that will go toward further development of the mosquito control effort.

Department of Agriculture entomologist Christopher Kishimoto told the advisory board Thursday that mosquito eggs from Hawaii already have been sent to a mainland lab.

Those mosquitoes will be crossbred with mosquitoes with a different strain of Wolbachia, a type of bacteria found across the state. Once those mosquitoes take up the new strain, they will be crossbred with a separate population of mosquitoes with Hawaii origins over seven generations. That will ensure the genetics of the introduced mosquitoes will have more than 99% similarity with the wild mosquito populations in Hawaii, he said.

Only the males will make the journey across the Pacific to the islands for release in the birds’ remote habitat.

Kishimoto said the lab technique has been used successfully around the world, including on the mainland.

“Based on data from Florida, California and Kentucky, there are no data to suggest releases of these male mosquitoes will have any negative impact on agriculture, the environment or public heath and safety,” he said.

State Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Suzanne Case said the incompatibility technique does not modify the genes of mosquitoes or Wolbachia. She said the process can be compared to taking antibiotics, then eating probiotics to replace the existing community of bacteria with a different community within your stomach.

“It’s disappointing that some people are misinforming others by saying this is using GMOs or GEs,” Case said in a DLNR news release issued last week to counter “the misinformation circulating on social media.”

Maui County Council member Kelly Takaya King hosted a virtual town hall meeting about the mosquito plan Thursday night, giving people a chance to hear from representatives from the Birds, Not Mosquitoes group.

Before the town hall, King said she could see how some people might not get it.

“It might seem a little creepy and sci-fi to people who don’t understand,” King said.

During the town hall, Hono­lulu environmental consultant Jonathan Likeke Scheuer said the GMO technology that would allow the campaign to accomplish what it needs to do in order to save the birds doesn’t actually exist yet for deployment, “but we’re not pursuing it. What is being pursued today here is a non-GMO technology.”

Scheuer said the chances of a female sneaking into the shipment of males is minuscule. But if it were to happen and she mated with a compatible male, he said, the offspring would have to out-compete the established population, which is unlikely.

As for threats to animals, native bats eat mosquitoes, he said, but it’s not a major portion of their diet, partially because the mosquito has been here only a couple hundred years and native species have been in the islands for millions of years.

As for risk to human health, the mosquitoes are planned to be released only in remote areas where few people traverse.

But, Scheuer said, “if they fly into your mouth, you’re not going to get infected with Wolbachia. You’re going to get a little shot of fat and protein just like you would if any mosquito would fly into your mouth and you ingest it.

“But it’s not going to bite you, because it’s a male mosquito.”

Melendez, of ForOur- Rights.org, which also has rallied against coronavirus vaccines and mask mandates, said she is skeptical of assertions the project does not involve genetic engineering.

“They are making changes to the insect, and there are no long-term studies about its impacts,” she said. “The people will get to be the guinea pigs.”