With the aim of reducing rates of the mosquito-borne illnesses yellow fever and dengue, a pilot program will release 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes into the Florida Keys in 2021, thanks to approval by the barrier islands’ Mosquito Control District Board of Commissioners at a meeting on Tuesday (August 18).
The strain of GM mosquitoes, known as OX513A, is an altered form of Aedes aegypti created by UK-based biotech firm Oxitec. Released mosquitoes will be all male, as male mosquitoes do not bite and generally only feed on nectar. Thanks to a conditionally lethal genetic variant, when OX513A mosquitoes mate with wild females, their offspring should die before they are old enough for females to begin biting.
Over the last 10 years, Oxitec deployed these GM mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands and Brazil. This will be the first release of any GM mosquitoes in the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and scientists at the University of Florida will oversee program.
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The strain of GM mosquitoes, known as OX513A, is an altered form of Aedes aegypti created by UK-based biotech firm Oxitec. Released mosquitoes will be all male, as male mosquitoes do not bite and generally only feed on nectar. Thanks to a conditionally lethal genetic variant, when OX513A mosquitoes mate with wild females, their offspring should die before they are old enough for females to begin biting.
Over the last 10 years, Oxitec deployed these GM mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands and Brazil. This will be the first release of any GM mosquitoes in the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and scientists at the University of Florida will oversee program.
More
11 comments:
General Motors Mosquitoes !!!
Get some Ford & Chrysler ones too !!!
What could go wrong?
God did an obviously lousy job creating all of this nature. So why not fix his mistakes?
Or if you prefer, Nature evolved in such a lousy manner that a certain for-profit company should go ahead and fix that which has accidentally evolved up to now.
Either way, Nature will never again be the same.
Ever.
Gee,what could possible go wrong?
Uh huh.
What could go wrong??
I mean, it's SCIENCE, for heaven's sake (no pun intended).
You're on the side of SCIENCE, right??
Look up "The Law of Unintended Consequences".
It is always smacking science upside the head. A reality check on the arrogance of man.
Playing with the genetic structure of something that has evolved for millions of years? Aaaahhhhh....….piece o' cake!
Just another government experiment on us. Watch this blow up in their faces. More wasted taxpayers money.
Just what we need...more mosquitoes.
Giant Mosquito was a B movie on SyFy channel back in the day.
Genetically modified mosquitoes - eh?
B-Movie to real life in 3....2.....1
HAHAHAHA
Get ready for your new diseases !!!!
If they are GM mosquitos look for them to be on the side of the highway for sure.
Trump will get the Blame as he does all the time from Democrats !!!!
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