The US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) hasgiven the go - aheadfor biotech company Oxitec to release billions of genetically engineered mosquito in Florida and California , with a deputation to combat mosquito - put up diseases like Dengue fever and the Zika virus .
After passing a peril assessment , Oxitec ’s technology was impart anexperimental use permitallowing 2.4 billion gene - tweaked mosquitos – over 2 billion in California and just under 400 million in Florida – to be release in two separate periods between 2022 to 2024 .
This recent permission comes off the back of apilot projection in the Florida Keyssuccessfully hold out in 2021 . Now the undertaking has take in the EPA licence , diligence can be send to local state regulators to ponder over .
The plan is to resign jillion of maleAedes aegyptimosquitoes , which do n’t burn , genetically modified to utter the protein tTAV - OX5034.TheAedes aegyptimosquito is not native to California or Florida , but it ’s become a big vector for several human diseases includingDengue , chikungunya , Zika , and yellow fever .
Once the precede male partner with wild distaff mosquito , the protein will be go on and efficaciously kill distaff offspring before they touch maturity , thereby subjugate the local population of mosquitos and quashing disease transmission ( at least in hypothesis ) .
While the mosquito and Oxitec ’s engineering have undergone twelve of tests and trials , not everyone likes the prospect of relinquish swarms of genetically engineered hemipterous insect into the wild . former pilot trials have received some resistance from concerned locals , withsome criticscalling it a “ Jurassic Park experimentation . ”
newsworthiness of release the genetically change mosquitoes in California is also causing some heads to work .
“ Once free into the surround , genetically mastermind mosquito can not be echo , ” Dr Robert Gould , President of San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility , say in astatementreleased by Friends of the Earth . “ Rather than forge ahead with an unregulated assailable - air genetic experiment , we postulate precautionary natural process , transparent data point and appropriate risk assessments . ”
“ This experimentation is unneeded and even dangerous , as there are no locally gain cases of dengue , yellow-bellied feverishness , chikungunya or Zika in California , ” added Jaydee Hanson , Policy Director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety
Oxitec has test toquell these concernsfrom the public , maintaining that their mosquitos offer a safe and sustainable pestilence control technology that does not harm beneficial insects , such as bees and butterfly stroke . Nevertheless , the controversy is unlikely to die down anytime soon .
“ give the get health terror this mosquito poses across the U.S. , we ’re working to make this engineering science useable and accessible . These pilot programs , wherein we can march the technology ’s effectiveness in different climate preferences , will flirt an of import role in doing so . We look onwards to beget to work this year , ” Grey Frandsen , CEO of Oxitec , said in astatement .
