Florida Will Release Genetically Modified Mosquitoes to Fight Disease in the Keys
Florida Will Release Genetically Modified Mosquitoes to Fight Disease in the Keys
Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Genetic biocontrol, North America, Oxitec, Population suppression, Self limiting, Sterile insect technique (SIT)S. Harrell, Spectrum News, 2020.
Following lengthy federal and state procedures, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District this week approved a plan to release more than 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes in the Keys region to combat an invasive, disease-carrying species of the insect.
The genetically altered mosquitoes, named OX5034 by Oxitec, the biotech firm that engineered them, are to be released in batches beginning in 2021. They are all male, and meant to mate with the females of the species Aedes aegypti, which came from Africa and is known to carry such diseases as zika, dengue and yellow fever, and render them unable to produce any viable offspring.
