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A British company has sparked outrage over the release of genetically modified mosquitoes into the wild, which critics say could create new super-mosquito variants, with residents fearing they could become a “human experiment” on the effects of mosquitoes. .
The British-based company Oxitec says it has altered the genetic makeup of the insects in order to eradicate all female offspring in order to eliminate large insect colonies.
The Oxitec Group is funded by the ‘Melinda Gates Bill’ Foundation.
The operation looks the same as a development last year by a sister company in the US.
Oxitec says the new hybrid offspring that will emerge from them could eradicate diseases such as Zika, yellow fever or African fever.
Even the experimental release of mosquitoes in California on an island off the Florida peninsula angered critics in the US who rightly say they can not predict the effects or behavior of modified insects.
“This unnecessary experiment is dangerous because in California we do not have cases of African fever, Zika or chikunjunga,” said Jaydee Hanson, a spokeswoman for the local food safety center.
“Releasing billions of genetically modified mosquitoes can cause mosquitoes to create dangerous, infectious and aggressive hybrids.”
The Oxitec group says there have been positive results so far, and that tests are needed to determine if their populations can be screened.
Oxitec applied in August 2021 with U.S. environmental agencies for the release of 5 million genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys to reduce virus transmission.
In March, federal authorities extended approval for the mass release of genetically modified mosquitoes into four areas of California, including the tropical islands in the Florida Keys.
The mosquito used in the experiment is ‘Aedes aegypti’, and makes up a small part of the mosquitoes in the Florida Keys.
In theory, modified male mosquitoes that mate with wildlife mosquitoes give birth to young females that die before reproduction. As young males survive, they pass on the modified death gene to their offspring.
Even in California the experiments have been met with fierce opposition.
Activist Angel Garcia said: “Our community does not want to be a human experiment in testing genetically modified mosquitoes and there are no cases of fever mentioned here.”
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