Safety Assessment of Transgenic Organisms in the Environment, Volume 8

Abstract

This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries.This document, as well as any data and any map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.Please cite this publication as: OECD (2018) The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.Photo credits: Cover © Maks Ershov.Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/about/publishing/corrigenda.htm. © OECD 2018You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of the source and copyright owner(s) is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to rights@oecd.org. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at info@copyright.com or the Centre francais d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at contact@cfcopies.com. FOREWORD │ 3SAFETY ASSESSMENTOF TRANSGENIC ORGANISMSIN THE ENVIRONMENT, VOLUME 8 © OECD 2018 ForewordModern biotechnologies are applied to plants species (crops, flowers, trees), animals and micro-organisms. The safety of the resulting transgenic organisms when released in the environment for their use in agriculture, forestry, the food and feed industry or for other applications represents a challenging issue. Genetically engineered products are rigorously assessed by their developers during their elaboration, and by governments when ready for release, to ensure high safety standards. This remains essential with new biotechnology developments using insects to fight against disease outbreaks: engineered mosquitoes need to be evaluated through a scientifically sound approach to risk/safety assessment that will inform biosafety regulators and support the decision concerning the release of these novel organisms in the environment.The OECD offers a long-standing recognised expertise in biosafety and contributes to facilitating an harmonised approach. The OECD's Working Group on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology (WG-HROB) was established in 1995. The WG-HROB gathers national authorities responsible for the environmental risk/safety assessment of products of modern biotechnology in OECD countries and other economies. International organisations and experts involved in biosafety activities are a...

Wing Geometry and Genetic Analyses Reveal Contrasting Spatial Structures between Male and FemaleAedes aegyptiPopulations in Metropolitan Manila, Philippines

“…Males are considered to be less anthrophilic than their female counterparts since they do not need blood for reproduction or survival. Furthermore, males only swarm humans to mate with blood-seeking females, but mating was frequently observed at oviposition sites or breeding containers 47 . This specific behavior could restrict male Ae.…”

Mathematical model for the aquatic stage of Aedes aegypti considering variable egg-hatching rate and inter-specific competition between larval stages

“…On the other hand, epidemiological models of vector-borne diseases usually make simplifying assumptions about the life cycle of the mosquito [27,11,22]. The aquatic stages of the mosquito are reduced to a single parameter that represents the maximal production of mosquitoes in the region [20,3] or, in some other cases, the carrying capacity [22].…”