Genetic mixing

Genetic pollution is a controversial term for uncontrolledgene flow into wild populations. This gene flow is undesirable according to some environmentalists and conservationists, including groups such as Greenpeace, TRAFFIC, and GeneWatch UK, even though it does not always have negative outcomes.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines genetic pollution as:

Some conservation biologists and conservationists have used genetic pollution for a number of years as a term to describe gene flow (which they regard as undesirable) from a domestic, feral, non-native or invasive subspecies to a wild indigenous population. The term is of late being associated with the gene flow from a genetically engineered (GE) organism to a non GE organism, frequently by those who consider such gene flow detrimental.

Whether the term 'genetic pollution' and similar phrases such as genetic deterioration, genetic swamping, genetic takeover, and genetic aggression, are an appropriate scientific description of the biology of invasive species is debated. Rhymer and Simberloff argue that these types of terms:

They recommend that gene flow from invasive species be termed genetic mixing since:

Environmentalists such as Patrick Moore, an ex-member and cofounder of Greenpeace, questions if the term genetic pollution is more political than scientific. The term is considered to arouse emotional feelings towards the subject matter. In an interview he comments:

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