Floridian authorities have given the green light on scientists wanting to release 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes.
Florida has historically been one of the most hard hit places in the USA by mosquitoes.
There are plans for the releases to go ahead in 2021 but no exact date has been set yet. The mosquitoes will have been modified in a manner that will reduce the spread of malaria and other mosquito born diseases, by inhibiting their ability to breed.
“With all the urgent crises facing our nation and the State of Florida — the Covid-19 pandemic, racial injustice, climate change — the administration has used tax dollars and government resources for a Jurassic Park experiment,” said Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety.
“Now the Monroe County Mosquito Control District has given the final permission needed. What could possibly go wrong? We don’t know, because EPA unlawfully refused to seriously analyze environmental risks, now without further review of the risks, the experiment can proceed,” she added.
Specifically, the genetic modification causes female offspring that the modified mosquitoes have to die very early in life, before they can spread any illness. Male mosquitoes don’t spread diseases like the females, hence why only one sex has been targeted in the experiment.
Oxitecs request was accepted by the EPA after years of proof that the genetically modified mosquitoes would be of benefit in the wild – saving many lives.
“This is an exciting development because it represents the ground-breaking work of hundreds of passionate people over more than a decade in multiple countries, all of whom want to protect communities from dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and other vector-borne diseases,” Oxitec CEO Grey Frandsen said in a statement.
