GM Mosquitoes OK'd for First U.S. Test in Florida Keys
RandomFactor writes:
On August 18th, Florida Keys' officials voted to allow the first test release of genetically modified mosquitoes in the U.S.
The target mosquito population (Aedes aegypti) spreads multiple diseases including yellow fever, dengue, zika and chikungunya and is difficult to control with traditional spraying.
Sometime after January 1, 2021, Florida workers will set out boxes of eggs of specially bred male yellow fever mosquitoes (a recent version called OX5034) in a stretch of Monroe County still to be chosen. The eggs, shipped from the biotech company Oxitec based in Abingdon, England, will grow into normal-looking males. Like other male mosquitoes, they drink flower nectar, not blood.
Then planners hope that during tests, these Oxitec foreigners will charm female mosquitoes into mating. A bit of saboteur genetics from the males will kill any female offspring resulting from the mating, and over time that should shrink the swarms. Sons that inherit their dad's no-daughter genes will go on to shrink the next generation even further.
Oxitec has already supplied around a billion similar mosquitoes for release in other countries.
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