Unleash The Fury: Release Of Genetically Engineered Mosquitos to Fight Zika Cleared By FDA
The Zika virus is a topic of concern, especially with the Olympics
kicking off in Rio De Janiero, Brazil—but I’m talking about the warning
that was issued very close to home by the Centers for Disease Control.
Fox News reported that for the first time since 1946,
the CDC issued a warning to traveling Americans about venturing into a
Miami neighborhood, where mosquitos carrying the virus have been
detected. While Congress haggles over funding to fights the virus, the
Federal Drug Administration has given the go-ahead to release
genetically modified mosquitos to fight Zika’s spread in the state (via Fusion):
On Friday, the FDA released a final environmental
assessment of the trial, finding that it “will not have significant
impacts on the environment.” The project, led by Oxitec, a biotech
company that focuses on insect control, calls for the release of
thousands of genetically engineered male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The
lab insects are bred so that over time they could kill off much of the
local mosquito population by passing on a gene fatal to any offspring
they have with wild females.
This is not the last hurdle Oxitec faces in turning its dream of
disease-obliterating mosquitoes into reality. The company will have to
win the approval of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, which
plans to vote on the proposal after issuing a survey testing local
sentiment of Keys residents this fall. While past surveys have shown the
project to have a majority of support, it has also had vocal naysayers.
Some fear the environmental impacts that removing the Aedes aegypti
mosquitoes, a non-native species, might have. Others have more
imaginative objections, such as conspiracy theories about the project.
Oxitec’s mosquitoes are engineered to include two copies of the
baby-mosquito killing genes, overriding natural selection to make it
almost certain that their offspring receive the killer gene from dad.
That’s pretty cool.
The Zika virus is a topic of concern, especially with the Olympics
kicking off in Rio De Janiero, Brazil—but I’m talking about the warning
that was issued very close to home by the Centers for Disease Control.
Fox News reported that for the first time since 1946,
the CDC issued a warning to traveling Americans about venturing into a
Miami neighborhood, where mosquitos carrying the virus have been
detected. While Congress haggles over funding to fights the virus, the
Federal Drug Administration has given the go-ahead to release
genetically modified mosquitos to fight Zika’s spread in the state (via Fusion):
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