Plans to produce one billion mosquito eggs in the UK every week have been announced by a company working to combat insect transmitted disease.
Oxitec has developed genetically-altered male mosquitoes which have been used in Brazil and Panama.
The company’s mosquitoes are designed to produce offspring that will not survive into adulthood so the population declines.
The unit making the eggs will be built in Abingdon, Oxfordshire [in the UK].
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The mosquito created is a version of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is known to carry Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.
Once released in the wild it seeks out female mosquitoes to mate with.
When used in trials in Brazil the mosquito reduced the wild population of the Aedes aegypti mosquito by 90%, the firm said.
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The Zika virus outbreak in 2015 led Brazil to declare a national emergency and was linked to severe birth defects.
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