AUSTRALIA has not excelled in its attempts at biological control – just think of the cane toad and, more recently, rabbit calicivirus. In this last case, the virus escaped to the mainland from a high-security research station on Wardang Island before safety tests had finished. So news that Australian researchers are thinking of releasing genetically modified viruses to sterilise mice, rabbits and foxes has set alarm bells ringing.
The viruses will carry the gene for an egg protein from the relevant animal and trigger an immune response that destroys the creature’s eggs (see “The contraceptive plague”). This technique may be…
