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Autumn 03 index CivAb index previous page A History of Meddling with Viruses Down Under by Marguerite Wegner Australian scientists want to field test a live virus Genetically Engineered to cause sterility in house mice. In 1995 Australia field tested a deadly disease of rabbits named Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease on Wardang Island, five kilometres off the coast of South Australia. Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease subsequently escaped containment and jumped to mainland Australia to kill millions of wild and pet rabbits. Field testing of RHD was allowed even though scientists had little understanding of how RHD evolved to kill rabbits or how RHD spread. Scientists even argued over the origins of RHD which had appeared for the first time in China ten years previously in 1984. The disease first appeared in a shipment of Angora rabbits flown into China from Germany in 1984 and the origins of RHD have never been resolved. One theory is RHD jumped species to become a deadly killer of European rabbits. RHD is now endemic to Australia. RHD has also since broken out in the USA and is endemic to most of Europe. Now Australian scientists want to field test a live virus Genetically Engineered to cause sterility in house mice. The virus they have chosen is Mouse Cytomegalo Virus (MCMV). There are concerns this virus could escape containment and cause unknown illnesses and effects in many mouse and non-mouse species in Australia and overseas. There are also concerns the GE'd MCMV mouse virus may eventually contracept humans. There is no data to prove the GE'd MCMV will never infect any other species other than the house mouse and no guarantees can ever be given of zero risk of cross species infection concerning any virus. Many people believe Australian authorities should stop interfering with nature. Genetically Engineered crops are already seen by many as a threat to the safety of our food supply. Genetically Engineered sterility causing viruses such as GE'd MCMV may pose a great threat to the web of life if released into the wild. An Australian scientist likened the development of sterility causing viruses to the development of the atom bomb. Virologist Dr Adrian Gibbs commented on the GE'd Mouse MCMV virus on a recent Australian TV program named "Catalyst" shown on the 28th of August 2003. Dr Gibbs said "I think it's an extremely clever idea. Yes, I think it's a very clever idea, very elegant idea but then so is the atom bomb". Dr Gibbs also commented: "I don't think people have realised that when you liberate a growing organism that in essence it has the potential to spread all over the entire world". A past Australian experiment to Genetically Engineer Ectromelia virus to contracept mice resulted in some researchers fearing they had developed a blue print for germ warfare. The GE'd Ectromelia virus suppressed immune systems in mice allowing them to die from normally survivable diseases (see "Killer Virus" on New Scientist website http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999311 Australia has an isolationist policy concerning the use of viruses and biocontrols to kill and control introduced animal species. A notable past biocontrol failure in Australia is the Cane Toad. A more recent failure was the Lantana bug introduced in 1995 which is now eating and killing Fiddlewood trees in Queensland. In 1995 Australian scientists argued they could predict that Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease would not infect humans or any other species. Yet their tests to prove the species specificity of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease were woefully inadequate and the bottom line became that farmers perceived the benefits of spreading RHD outweighed the risks of not spreading RHD (i.e. RHD was a cheap and easy way to kill wild rabbits). RHD was illegally spread in both Australia and New Zealand by farmers and others. The risks of deliberately spreading RHD such as cross species infection were minimised by Australian scientists in 1995-1996. This caused much controversy worldwide and also encouraged those wishing to spread RHD to feel there was no risk in deliberately spreading a deadly disease as if it were a chemical not capable of mutation or cross species transmission. Recently, many countries have been concerned about the potential for bioterrorists to use diseases (including illnesses caused by viruses) to harm humans in target countries. These diseases include zoonotic viruses that have jumped from animals to humans. The USA National Institute of Health published a list of diseases by category considered possible biothreats to humans. These lists include about 30 viruses of which 28 are zoonotic viruses which have jumped from animals to humans (the list does not contain corona viruses such as SARS which emerged after the lists were composed). Most of the zoonotic diseases harmful to humans on the NIH lists are RNA viruses. RNA viruses including RHD are known to have relatively high mutation rates. In Australia, no-one is monitoring non-rabbit species for infection by RHD which could cause unknown effects such as abortions. RHD monitoring schemes were dropped because of a lack of funding. In New Zealand, where RHD was illegally introduced against the wishes of the NZ Government, even bizarre syndromes such as ear-rot seen in rabbits with RHD could not be followed up because of lack of funding. It is likely any new organism released into the wild in Australia would also be faced with lack of funding for long term monitoring. Recent TV programs in Australia have examined the possibility that Genetically Engineered viruses in Australia could jump species or even jump to other continents and cause problems in native animals that are considered treasures in one country but pests in another. In New Zealand for example, introduced Australian brush tailed possums are considered a pest species. If New Zealand released a contraceptive virus to contracept brush tailed possums, no-one could guarantee this virus could not jump to Australia and cause untold damage to Australian native possum species. Australia continues to see deadly viruses and genetically engineered viruses as a means to kill unwanted species. A TV producer once said that there would be no change in the media's interest (and by implication the public's interest) in the deliberate use of viruses until there were dead human bodies resulting from such diseases. If introduced or Genetically Engineered viruses did jump species to infect humans, it is unlikely the Australian hospital system could cope with such outbreaks which might occur on a scale equal to the SARS epidemic. Let us pray that commonsense finally prevails in Australia and the use of germ warfare and Genetically Engineered viruses against other species finally ceases forever. For further information on the Genetically Engineered Mouse Virus including references and links, please visit http://members.iinet.net.au/~rabbit/mousegevi.htm Marguerite Wegner, the founder of Rabbit Information Service, has been active in challenging her government's rash biological experiments. |
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The Civil Abolitionist Autumn 2003 v.14 no. 2 |