Plan to Release 750M GMO Mosquitoes Gets Go Ahead

Male mosquitoes don’t bite people—but Florida Keys residents still have concerns about plans to release 750 million of them in a mosquito control project starting next year. The plan to release the genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes received final approval from local authorities Tuesday, causing an outcry from groups opposed to what they call a “Jurassic Park experiment,” CNN reports. British biotech firm Oxitec says the “OX5034” modified male mosquitoes produce female offspring that die in the larval stage—and male ones that pass on the modified genes, drastically reducing populations of Aedes aegypti and the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, including Zika and dengue fever, without using pesticides.

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