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Technology |
Our Technology Oxitec’s RIDL® technology employs genetics and molecular biology to improve significantly the cost-effectiveness and safety of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), and to extend SIT to a broader range of insect pests. RIDL technology could be applied to numerous pest insects, most confidently to Diptera (flies, mosquitoes) and Lepidoptera (moths). Sterilisation: no more irradiation RIDL insects are bred to be sterile, but can live and reproduce normally when fed a diet containing a supplement. RIDL insects can therefore be reared in a factory and released to mate with wild pest insects without the need for an additional sterilizing step, such as irradiation. RIDL insects will be more vigorous and competitive for mates than irradiated ones, so fewer RIDL insects will be required for effective control – reducing costs. RIDL rearing facilities will not require radioactive-isotope irradiators, which are expensive, inconvenient and inherently hazardous. The RIDL rearing and distribution process may be designed for maximum efficiency. In conventional SIT this is constrained by the need for irradiation, which may only take place at certain life stages, late pupae or adult. RIDL technology can be used to control a broad range of pest insects, including disease-spreading mosquitoes. SIT cannot be applied to insects in which a sterilizing dose of irradiation is too damaging to create effective control agents. Single sex releases SIT programmes generally work best when only male insects are released. Sterile females distract the sterile males from looking for wild female mates, and in some cases cause direct damage. For example, sterile female fruit flies damage fruit by trying to lay eggs, while female mosquitoes bite and spread disease (males do not). Genetic sexing strains increase the effective capacity of mass-rearing and release facilities and reduce production and release costs. Oxitec’s female-lethal RIDL strains produce male, but no female, progeny in the absence of the diet supplement. The supplement is not included in the diet of the final, pre-release generation so that only males are produced for release. When these males mate with wild females they produce no female progeny, and the population is controlled. "Fail-safe" Bio-containment RIDL technology has a built-in "fail-safe" mechanism: if insects were to escape from a rearing facility, they would be unable to reproduce because they would not have access to the diet supplement. This allows rearing facilities to be located in pest-free zones without the risk of escapees causing harm. |
Genetic Markers All of Oxitec’s RIDL strains contain a heritable, fluorescent marker, which makes it easier to distinguish them from native pest insects, and helps field entomologists to monitor insect pest populations.
Genetically marked insects under normal and fluorescent microscopes: Medfly adults, Pink Bollworm pupae |
