Aedes aegypti is one of the most common mosquitoes in the U.S. that can spread disease. One of the best-known mosquito-borne diseases is malaria, but Aedes aegypti is associated with 54 viruses. West Nile virus, Zika, and dengue are just three diseases these mosquitoes transmit around the U.S.
With 1 in 150 people becoming seriously ill due to West Nile virus, sometimes fatally, what can we do to prevent mosquito bites?
The World Mosquito Program has discovered something amazing: When Aedes aegypti carry Wolbachia, a common bacteria in mosquitoes, it competes with viruses like dengue. This makes it much harder for the virus to reproduce inside the mosquito, reducing the risk of spreading diseases to humans.
By selectively breeding Aedes aegypti with Wolbachia and releasing them into areas with heavy viral burdens, the World Mosquito Program is reducing disease with impressive results.
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Oxitec has been testing its GM mosquitoes in Brazil, the Cayman Islands¹⁷, Malaysia, and Panama for the last ten years. Remarkably, Oxitec demonstrated that their biotechnology could reduce the local Aedes aegypti population by more than 90%.
In 2021, Florida started releasing 144,000¹⁸ genetically modified, non-biting male Aedes aegypti engineered by Oxitec.
