The program, led by biotechnology company Oxitec funded by who else than the self-appointed Global Minister of Health Bill Gates, will release roughly 2 million genetically altered mosquitoes in California and Florida to fend off other mosquitoes carrying deadly diseases like Zika, yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya, the company said in a press release. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved Oxitec’s plan on March 8.
“Given the growing health threat this mosquito poses across the U.S., we’re working to make this technology available and accessible,” Oxitec chief executive officer Grey Frandsen said in the press release.
Oxitec’s mosquitoes are genetically modified to control the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito, which first appeared in California in 2013, according to the company press release. The species are known to carry and spread various deadly diseases.
“These pilot programs, wherein we can demonstrate the technology’s effectiveness in different climate settings, will play an important role in doing so,” Frandsen added. “We look forward to getting to work this year.”
Mosquitoes are responsible for over 1 million human deaths per year due to the insect’s ability to carry and spread life-threatening diseases.
In 2019, U.K.-based biotechnology company Oxitec has partnered with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District in an effort to control the invasive and disease-spreading female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the region.
Oxitec’s male mosquitoes — which don’t bite, unlike the recently-discovered yellow fever-carrying Aedes scapularis mosquitoes — will be introduced in small areas in a select number of neighborhoods between mile markers 10 and 93 in the Keys.
The project, Oxitec hopes, will be successful in passing what Oxitec Head of Regulator Affairs Dr. Nathan Rose calls a “self-limiting” gene from its genetically modified males to their wild mates, ensuring future offspring do not mature into adulthood and reducing the population.
While more than 7,300 Dengue cases were reported in the U.S. between 2010 and 2020 — cases are largely contracted outside the U.S. — there were 71 cases that were transmitted locally in the Sunshine State, according to the CDC.
“So, mosquito-borne disease is a thing in the U.S., and it’s likely to get worse in the future as a result of climate change [and] as these mosquitoes kind of move farther and farther north from the Gulf Coast into more and more of the continental U.S.,” Rose told Fox News. “So, the diseases are a big problem because these particular diseases don’t have any effective vaccines or medications to treat them [and] the only way to control them is actually to control the mosquitoes that spread them…”
The company claims a trial of Oxitec’s Aedes aegypti technology in Brazil and a 2016 test in the Cayman Islands were successful and did not “persist in the environment or cause harm to beneficial insects,” according to its website.
Regulatory approvals for the first phase have already been provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and multiple Florida state agencies, including the Department of Health and Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
In August 2020, the Keys mosquito control district’s board of commissioners approved the agreement for the 2021 release. Oxitec says an independent evaluation of the project will be provided by the CDC, University of Florida’s Medical Entomology Laboratory, Monroe County Department of Health, and local leaders fox news article.
The male mosquitoes were engineered with a sequence of DNA known as a “gene drive” that can rapidly transmit a deleterious mutation that essentially wipes out populations of the insects.
Müller and her colleagues decided to use CRISPR, a technique that enables scientists to make precise changes in DNA easily to genetically modify the Anopheles gambiae species of mosquito,the modification consisted of a mutation in a gene known as “doublesex,” which female mosquitoes need for normal development. The mutation deforms their mouths, making them unable to bite and spread the parasite. It also deforms their reproductive organs, rendering them unable to lay eggs. Others are highly skeptical and said the technology is too dangerous.
“The idea of gene-drive mosquitoes is something that is very disturbing to me and to many of the people I speak to,” said Nnimmo Bassey, who heads the Health of Mother Earth Foundation in Nigeria, an environmental advocacy group. “It has the possibility of disrupting the balance in our ecosystems” in ways that can’t be predicted.
“This experiment is another reminder that there isn’t a safe or ethical way to experiment with gene drives,” Dana Perls of the environmental group Friends of the Earth wrote in an email to NPR. npr
What are the potential downsides?
Take the mosquito, for example. We think of them as an annoyance at best, a carrier of serious and even deadly diseases at worst. But they play a key role in many ecosystems, according to National Geographic. Male mosquitoes eat nectar and, in the process, pollinate all manner of plants. These insects are also an important food source for many other animals, including bats, birds, reptiles, amphibians and even other insects. mosquito info
Release genetically modified, DNA altered mosquitoes into the community, what could possibly go wrong?
Opponents of the program argue for several reasons:
– That it is destructive and dangerous for public health
– The fact that there have not been any confirmed cases of any of those diseases in California
– Yellow fever and the Zika virus currently do not exist in Florida or the United States
– Oxitec is allowed to keep results of their experiment private
– The EPA’s parameters are not sufficient
– Reports on the allergic reactions to these mosquitoes has been blacked out on the reports
According to FloridaHealth.gov:
“While previously present in Florida, the virus was eliminated from the United States several decades ago. Since then, a small number of cases have been reported each year in individuals with recent travel history to a dengue-endemic country. Until 2009, there were no reports of dengue acquired in Florida since 1934. In 2009 -2010, an outbreak of dengue was identified in Key West. A total 22 persons were identified with dengue fever in Key West during the summer and fall of 2009. In 2010, 66 cases of locally acquired dengue associated with Key West were reported in Florida with onset dates between March and November 2010.
Several cases are reported in Florida each year in people traveling to areas where the disease is present. These imported cases are usually from dengue endemic regions such as the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Asia. The close proximity of areas with dengue such as Puerto Rico and frequent international travel in Florida residents and immigrants makes it possible to have dengue re-introduced. Several transient dengue introductions have been identified in Florida since the Key West outbreak. There was also a Martin County outbreak in 2013. In 2020, dengue transmission was detected in Key Largo. For current case counts please see FloridaHealth.gov.”
Oh, one last thing … Oxitec is a British firm funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
I always feel safe and secure when Bill Gates is involved.