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“Now the Monroe County Mosquito Control District has given the necessary final clearance. What could go wrong? We don’t know, as the EPA has illegally refused to seriously analyze the risks. environmental, now without further consideration of the risks, the experiment can continue, “she added.
Approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in May, the pilot project is designed to test whether a genetically modified mosquito is a viable alternative to spraying insecticides to control Aedes aegypti. It is a species of mosquito that carries several deadly diseases, such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever.
The mosquito, named OX5034, has been modified to produce female offspring which dies in the larval stage, well before hatching and becomes large enough to bite and spread disease. Only the female mosquito bites for blood, which she needs to ripen her eggs. Males feed only on nectar and are therefore not carriers of disease.
A long fight in Florida
In June, the state of Florida issued an experimental use permit after seven state agencies unanimously approved the project. But it took over a decade to get that approval.
In 2009 and 2010, local outbreaks of dengue, which is spread by Aedes aegypti, left the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District desperate for new options. Despite an avalanche of efforts – from aerial, truck and backpack spraying to the use of mosquito-eating fish – local control efforts to contain Aedes aegypti with larvicides and pesticides have been largely ineffective.
And expensive too. Even though Aedes aegypti makes up only 1% of its mosquito population, Florida Keys Mosquito Control typically spends over $ 1 million a year, or one-tenth of its total funding, on its fight.
In 2012, the district turned to Oxitec for help. The company had developed a male mosquito named OX513A, which is programmed to die before adulthood unless it is grown in water containing the antibiotic tetracycline.
Lots of sterile OX513A may live and mate with females; however, their male and female descendants would inherit the “kill” program and die, thus limiting population growth.
Public relations campaigns reminding Floridians that the GMO mosquito does not bite because it is male has not completely solved the problem. The media quoted angry residents refusing to be treated as “guinea pigs” for the “superbug” or “Robo-Frankenstein” mosquito.
The EPA has spent years investigating the mosquito’s impact on human health and the environment, leaving time for the public to participate. But in the middle of the evaluation, Oxitec developed a second generation “Friendly Mosquito” technology and withdrew the request for the first.
The new male mosquito, OX5034, is programmed to kill only female mosquitoes, with males surviving for several generations and passing on the modified genes to subsequent male offspring.
The EPA permit requires Oxitec to notify state officials 72 hours before releasing mosquitoes and to perform ongoing testing for at least 10 weeks to ensure that none of the female mosquitoes reach the adulthood.
However, environmental groups fear that the spread of genetically engineered male genes in the wild population could potentially harm threatened and endangered species of birds, insects and mammals that feed on mosquitoes.
“The release of genetically modified mosquitoes will put Floridians, the environment and endangered species at risk in the midst of a pandemic needlessly,” said Dana Perls, food and technology program manager at Friends of the Earth on Wednesday. declaration.
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