In this way it tries to reduce a mosquito population that transmits diseases to humans….
The insects released by the biotechnology company are all male, so they do not bite.
They are expected to mate with local female mosquitoes that bite and thus, they will transmit a deadly gene that will ensure that their female offspring will die before they reach maturity.
Surely you will all be thinking… since he can do it to mosquitoes… why not do it… elsewhere? After all, since 2008 he wanted to create genetically modified mosquitoes to inject vaccines into humans.
Genetically modified mosquitoes were first released in the United States as part of an experiment to control insect-borne diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever and Zika virus.
The UK-based biotechnology company Oxitec, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said it has released mosquitoes at six locations in the Florida Keys of Monroe County: two in Cudjoe Key, one in Ramrod Key and three in Vaca Key.
It is part of an effort to tackle a disease-infesting mosquito population – the Aedes aegypti mosquito species – which is responsible for “almost all diseases transmitted from mosquitoes to humans,” according to the company.
These mosquitoes make up about 4 percent of the mosquito population in the Keys and transmit dengue fever, Zika, yellow fever and other human diseases, as well as heartworm and other potentially deadly diseases to pets and other animals.
The experiment is in collaboration with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control Area (FKMCD) and was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a independent advisory board.
Over the next 12 weeks, less than 12,000 mosquitoes are expected to appear each week for about 12 weeks. Untreated comparison sites will be monitored by mosquito traps at Key Colony Beach, Little Torch Key and Summerland Key.
If successful, an additional 20 million genetically modified mosquitoes will be released later this year.
“We started looking at it a decade ago because we were in the middle of a dengue fever here in the Florida Keys,” FKMCD Executive Director Andrea Leal said in a television interview. “So we are very excited to move forward with this partnership, working with both Oxitec and members of the community.”
The insects released by the biotechnology company are all male, so they do not bite. They are expected to mate with local female mosquitoes that bite, thus transmitting a lethal gene that will ensure that their female offspring die before they reach maturity.
According to Quartz, areas such as Malaysia, Brazil, the Cayman Islands and Panama, where similar experiments have been performed, have shown that mosquito populations have been reduced by up to 90%.
The project met with reactions from residents, who say their consent to the experiment was not sought.
Note:
The idea of using mosquitoes is not new…
“Flying Syringes”, in an earlier article, is a phrase used to refer to a project funded by Bill Gates to create genetically modified mosquitoes that inject vaccines into humans when they are bitten.
In 2008, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $ 100,000 to Hiroyuki Matsuoka of Jichi Medical University in Japan to conduct research on genetically modified mosquitoes.
You say there is a connection…?
