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Mar 30, 2022 · The Environmental Protection Agency has cleared the release of 2.4 billion genetically-modified mosquitoes in California and Florida. The mosquitoes, created by biotech firm Oxitec, will be...
- Margaret Osborne
- Overview
- Following the plan
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Researchers have completed the first open-air study of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the United States. The results, according to the biotechnology firm running the experiment, are positive. But larger tests are still needed to determine whether the insects can achieve the ultimate goal of suppressing a wild population of potentially virus-carrying mosquitoes.
The experiment has been under way since April 2021 in the Florida Keys, a chain of tropical islands near the southern tip of Florida. Oxitec, which developed the insects, released nearly five million engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes over the course of seven months, and has now almost completed monitoring of the release sites.
Based in Abingdon, UK, the firm reported the first results from the experiment during a webinar on 6 April, although it has not yet published the data.
Wild A. aegypti mosquitoes can carry viruses such as chikungunya, dengue, Zika and yellow fever, so scientists have sought ways to reduce their populations. Oxitec’s engineered males carry a gene that is lethal to female offspring. If all goes to plan, when released into the environment, the engineered males will mate with wild females, and their female offspring will die before they can reproduce. Male offspring will carry the gene and pass it on to half of their progeny. As each generation mates, more females die, and the A. aegypti population should dwindle.
First genetically modified mosquitoes released in the United States
- Emily Waltz
Mar 12, 2022 · By Tim Fitzsimons. A British biotech firm this week got the green light from U.S. regulators to release over 2 million genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida and California as part of an...
- Tim Fitzsimons
Apr 20, 2022 · The first open-air study that released genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys has just concluded. The experiment was designed to show whether these modified bugs could help...
- Hannah Seo
Apr 21, 2022 · A private company that released genetically modified mosquitoes into the open air of the Florida Keys last spring says the experiment was a success, reports Emily Waltz for Nature.
Apr 20, 2024 · GM mosquitoes are mass-produced in a laboratory to carry two types of genes: A self-limiting gene that prevents female mosquito offspring from surviving to adulthood. A fluorescent marker gene that glows under a special red light. This allows researchers to identify GM mosquitoes in the wild.
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(Beyond Pesticides, March 16, 2022) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has authorized the “experimental use” and release of 2.5 billion genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes in Florida and California by the British-based firm Oxitec.
