The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has cleared a plan to release up to 2 billion genetically modified mosquitoes in California and Florida as a test to cull populations of the natural, disease-causing insects.
Pilot program will test the ability to reduce mosquito populations
With the US entering meteorological spring, warm weather is not the only thing the season brings; insects begin to merge. As the pandemic begins to subside, the last thing anyone wants to see is an outbreak of diseases that are spread by mosquitoes.
A new pilot program has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which will use genetically altered mosquitoes to reduce the ability of natural mosquitoes in the wild to reproduce.
A biotechnology company, Oxitec, has developed genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which carry several many diseases, including Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever. They have codenamed the species OX5034, Gizmodo reported.
The company altered male mosquitoes, which do not bite, hoping that they will meet with females in the wild – which do bite.
According to the company, when the genetically altered males mate with natural females, they will produce offspring – both male and female – that will not survive to reach maturity, the New York Post reported. Thus, it is expected to doom the population as a whole.
The genetically modified male mosquitoes are thought to pose no danger to people.
Test mosquitoes to be released in Florida and California
Working with local authorities, the EPA has approved Oxitec to release over 2 billion genetically modified mosquitoes across two states: Florida and California. The mosquitoes will be set loose in select areas of both states. The pilot program will collaborate with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District in Florida.
Florida began a pilot test program last year in the Florida Keys.
The EPA plans to expand the program into four counties in California and is awaiting approval from the state’s regulators.
Mosquito-borne diseases in the US
Most of the continental United States has Anopheles mosquitoes (particularly An. freeborni and An. quadrimaculatus), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to the CDC, the most common mosquito-borne disease in the continental US is the West Nile virus. Other diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus outbreaks, have occurred in US states and territories, including Florida, Hawaii, Texas, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.
Florida saw a dengue outbreak as recently as 2020. According to the CDC, there is no current local transmission of Zika in the continental US. However, there were cases transmitted by mosquitoes in Florida and Texas in 2016-2017. There have been no cases since 2018.
