GM Mosquitoes Closer to Release in U.S.

Recently, the FDA has granted permission to the EPA to take responsibility for overseeing the approval of genetically altered mosquitoes. These mosquitoes could be released to the wild as early as next year in the US. The intent is to stop the transfer of disease such as Zika and other viral diseases. The mosquitoes are modified with a gene that is self limiting, meaning it will kill the insects at a young age before they are able to reproduce. They will release males to mate with wild females in hopes that the gene will spread quickly. One proposed release site is in the Florida Keys which spends 1.1 million dollars a year to control mosquito populations using conventional insecticides. The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District has already partnered with the parent company that created the genetically modified mosquitoes and is awaiting regulatory approval. Hopefully the goal of this operation can be obtained without any environmental ramifications.


https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/50636/title/GM-Mosquitoes-Closer-to-Release-in-U-S-/

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/20/502717253/florida-keys-approves-trial-of-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-to-fight-zika

Genetically Altered, Disease Fighting Mosquitoes to be Released in Florida

In 2012, a British biotech company called Oxitec had genetically modified 3.3 million mosquitoes and released them in the Cayman Islands to fight diseases.  These mosquitoes had been bred with parts of the herpes virus and E. coli bacteria along with coral and cabbage genes.  This modification would, in essence, prevent future generations of mosquitoes and keep the diseases they carry from spreading to their offspring and eventually to the people they bite.  Genetically altered males would mate with wild females and their larvae would die thus lowering the mosquito population.  From their 2012 test, 96% of the targeted population of mosquitoes were suppressed.  This year, Oxitec has announced that they are looking to perform a test like this in Florida.

Insecticides are used in the Florida Keys because mosquitoes have always been a nuisance. The species of mosquitoes that carry the diseases have adapted and become immune to four of the six insecticides. The two diseases the company wants to target are dengue and chikungunya, both of which are very painful and are carried by mosquitoes.  There are no vaccines for either illness.  If Oxitec gets the OK to release a portion of their mosquitoes, they would mate with potentially infected females and significantly lower the mosquito population in the Florida Keys.  The company will make sure to separate the genetically altered males from the altered females and only release the non-biting males as to not pose a threat to the human population in the Keys.  

However, there are many people who don't want Oxitec to go through with this experiment.  Many of the questions and concerns include "what if there are females released and they bite people?", "those diseases haven't affected Florida yet, why are you using them as guinea pigs?", and "if a mosquito does bite someone, will their altered DNA hurt me?".  Oxitec has released about 70 million of their genetically modified mosquitoes into several countries and they haven't heard any complaints about the mosquitoes being harmful to the population.  The company has designed the mosquitoes with non-toxic, non-allergenic proteins that are not harmful to humans.  Despite Oxitec's efforts to assure people that the mosquitoes will help them more than hurt them, a Change.org petition has reached over 130,000 signatures against the experiment.

I thought this was a really cool article because of the way they're handling the disease.  It would be too easy to make a new insecticide to get rid of the infected mosquitoes.  Oxitec is using mosquitoes to kill mosquitoes and, to me, it's fool proof and there's no doubt that it'll be effective.  I think this is a great idea especially if it's virtually harmless to the ecosystem that's already there.