BiotechnBiosafety20editedfinal
About the Book
Self-spreading vaccines have been proposed for over four decades as a way to achieve population-level immunity in wildlife by allowing genetically engineered vectors to passively disseminate protective antigens from host to host. Since the 1980s – through successive waves of recombinant vaccinia, herpes- and cytomegalovirus constructs, and post-COVID synthetic biology platforms – the concept has repeatedly been promoted as close to field-ready. Yet no candidate has progressed beyond models and contained experiments. The distance between promise and practice persists because the very traits that make these vaccines attractive – transmissibility, persistence, and autonomy – create risks that current science and governance cannot effectively address.
This paper reassesses the paradigm through three frequently cited targets – Lassa fever in Mastomys rodents, rabies in bats, and white-nose syndrome in North American bats – chosen because they span zoonotic control and conservation imperatives and because they have repeatedly been presented as “near-product”. Across these cases, the scientific rationale is plausible, but ecological and evolutionary behaviour in open systems remains inherently unpredictable: small genetic changes can shift host range or virulence; interactions with circulating pathogens can produce unintended dynamics; and once established, a transmissible construct cannot be reliably recalled.
Situated within the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the analysis shows that existing risk-assessment procedures, liability and redress provisions, and transboundary safeguards presume containment and reversibility – assumptions incompatible with self-propagating agents. Ethical commitments, including meaningful participation of potentially affected States and communities, are likewise difficult to realize when spatial and temporal boundaries are indeterminate. The conclusion is therefore precautionary and practical: research on genetically engineered selfspreading vaccines should remain confined to laboratory and strictly contained settings, while international efforts focus on developing credible ecological monitoring, long-term modelling, and governance mechanisms that would be prerequisites for any future consideration of environmental release.
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Case Studies
Lassa Fever in Mastomys Rodents
Rabies in Bats
White-Nose Syndrome in North American Bats
Chapter 3. Discussion
Chapter 4. Conclusion
References