Forget lions, hippos or venomous spiders. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes may be among the deadliest wildlife in the world. Their bite is relatively harmless in normal circumstances. But many of these mosquitoes carry diseases they transmit from the blood of one host to another, including Zika, chikungunya, dengue and yellow fever.
Oxitec, a U.S.-owned and U.K-based biotechnology company, has modified the genes of male mosquitoes so that their female offspring die while males survive. The second generation of these males will also carry this gene so that when they mate, they will also give birth to no females. Eventually, the genetically modified DNA spreads through an Ae. aegypti population, decimating its numbers.
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Oxitec is currently in the midst of a pilot project in southern Florida in collaboration with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, and will soon submit another research request for a pilot project in Tulare County, Calif.
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The company is also planning on developing similarly modified mosquitoes to target other species that carry disease like tiger mosquitoes or mosquito species that carry malaria. They are also unrolling a genetically modified version of the fall armyworm, an invasive and devastating moth for corn crops in many parts of the world.
