Bill Gates-Funded Company Releases Genetically Modified Mosquitoes in US

[IceWizard]

Bill Gates-Funded Company Releases
Genetically Modified Mosquitoes in US






A transgenic Aedes aegypti OX513A mosquito,
created by Oxitec, in Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil,
on Oct. 26, 2016.
(Miguel Schincariol/AFP via Getty Images)



BY ISABEL VAN BRUGEN
May 7, 2021
Updated: May 7, 2021



Genetically modified mosquitoes have been released for the first time in the
United States as part of an experiment to combat insect-borne diseases such
as Dengue fever, yellow fever, and the Zika virus.

UK-based biotechnology firm Oxitec, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, said it released the mosquitoes in six locations in Monroe
County’s Florida Keys: two on Cudjoe Key, one on Ramrod Key, and three
on Vaca Key.

It’s part of an effort to help tackle a disease-transmitting invasive mosquito
population—the Aedes aegypti mosquito species—that’s responsible for
“virtually all mosquito-borne diseases transmitted to humans,” according
to the company.

These mosquitoes make up about 4 percent of the mosquito population in
the Keys, and transmit dengue, 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 District
(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 an independent advisory board.

Over the next 12 weeks, fewer than 12,000 mosquitoes are expected to emerge
each week, for approximately 12 weeks. Untreated comparison sites will be
monitored with mosquito traps on Key Colony Beach, Little Torch Key, and
Summerland Key.

If successful, some 20 million additional genetically modified mosquitoes will be
released later in the year.

“We really started looking at this about a decade ago, because we were in the middle
of a dengue fever outbreak here in the Florida Keys,” FKMCD Executive Director
Andrea Leal said during a video news conference. “So we’re just very excited to
move forward with this partnership, working both with Oxitec and members of the community.”

The insects released by the biotechnology firm are all male, so they don’t bite. They’re expected
to mate with the local biting female mosquitoes, and in doing so, they will pass on a lethal gene
that will ensure their female offspring die before reaching maturity.

According to Quartz, areas including Malaysia, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, and Panama,
where similar experiments have been carried out, have seen mosquito populations drop
by as much as 90 percent.

The project has faced backlash from residents,
who say their consent was not sought for the experiment.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[IceWizard]

That's great...

Just as long as the GMO skeeters don't grow to the size of birds


Ice

[coffeedude22]

The size of birds, lol, that one got me.