With confirmation that Zika-carrying mosquitos have finally spread to the US, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a controversial new experiment to confront the attendant risk. The FDA issued approval after months of reviewing public comments on the agency’s study regarding the potential environmental impact of the genetically engineered mosquito.
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The plan Oxitec cooked up involves releasing genetically modified Aedes aegypti male mosquitos that would pass off a gene that’s fatal to any offspring produced with wild female insects, thus trimming the population of infected mosquitos. The trial would evaluate the product’s effectiveness in reducing the population of hard-to-kill Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
This island is ideal for the trial as the mosquitoes don’t travel very far during their lifetimes.
Trials of the modified mosquitoes in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands suggest they reduced local populations of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes by more than 90 per cent, Oxitec says.
Zika is also a sexually transmitted disease, and people from all over the world travel through Miami, so it may be hard to contain the species or the virus, she said.
He said he had asked the CDC for 10,000 additional Zika prevention kits, which contain mosquito repellent, condoms and tabs to treat standing water.
While this is an effective method of controlling mosquitoes and the numerous diseases they carry without resorting to harsh chemical pesticides, the plan comes with controversy.
What do you think about the release of genetically modified mosquitoes into the Florida Keys in a bid to curb the Zika virus?
A trendy Miami neighborhood at the epicenter of the first US outbreak of the Zika virus is safe to visit, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Sunday. No set day for when this field trial will begin has been released. And seeing as two babies were born in California recently with potentially Zika-related microcephaly and the CDC issued its first travel warning in the continental USA due to an outbreak in Miami, it seems more will be in support of acting to prevent further damage than doing nothing at all.
US health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.
A new analysis by Climate Central highlights that the number of days hot and humid enough for mosquitoes to be active and biting has increased in many big us cities-and climate change will further increase those numbers, in most locations.
One person in California contracted the virus through sex.
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He also likes that Oxitec’s mosquitoes won’t have significant impacts on the environment, as sprays now used do. What about the creatures who eat the mosquitoes and all the life forms up the food chain?
