Nation’s First Trial Of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Starts In Florida Keys

Nation’s First Trial Of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Starts In Florida Keys

Tags: Aedes, Dengue, Genetic biocontrol, Genetically modified mosquitoes, North America, Oxitec, Sterile insect technique (SIT)
N. Klingener,  WLRN,  2021. Article

Boxes containing the eggs of genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, water and a little food are being placed in six locations in the Lower and Middle Keys this week — in a trial that will be the first of its kind in the United States. The genetic modification is intended so that female offspring won’t survive. Female mosquitoes are the ones that bite and can transmit diseases like dengue and zika. The genetically modified males are supposed to breed with wild females — and then their female offspring won’t survive, either. Andrea Leal is in charge of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. The district has been working with the British firm Oxitec for more than a decade, since a 2009-10 outbreak of dengue fever in Key West.

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