The scientists want to place 2,350 gene-altered moths in a large mesh cage in an Arizona cotton field. Their long-term plan is to insert a lethal gene into the moth that would be passed to their offspring, wiping out the next generation of insects. But in their first field trial, the scientists will use only a marker gene and watch how it affects moth behavior. Robert Rose, a USDA official charged with assessing the scientists' plan, said he is considering the stability of the mesh cage and the fitness of altered moths to survive in the wild. Only sterile moths would be put into the cage, he said, a step that aims to diminish their effect on the environment if they escape.
Federal jurisdiction is less clear over other bugs now being developed.
An antimalaria mosquito, for example, would not be considered a plant pest and therefore would probably not fall under USDA jurisdiction, Rose said. But officials at the Environmental Protection Agency say it is not clear that they would oversee the mosquitoes, either. Beard, a parasitic-disease specialist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says he consulted the CDC's own biosafety committee about his plans for the kissing bug. The bug has infected 14 million people in Central and South America with Chagas disease, which causes heart and digestive problems that kill 50,000 a year. Kissing bugs hide in the thatch huts common in the developing world, and they feed on the blood of people and animals.