The British biotechnology company Oxitec fought for approval and acceptance for its project for ten years. Now she has released genetically modified mosquitoes for the first time. As part of the experiment, which started this week in the Florida Keys (an island chain off the southern tip of Florida), the company wants to test a new method to prevent the spread of the Egyptian tiger mosquito (Aedes aegypti) contain the disease that can transmit diseases such as zika or dengue fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever.
Oxitec has already used the genetically modified insects in Brazil, Panama, Malaysia and the Cayman Islands. In the USA, they have not been able to do this due to cumbersome official decision-making processes and the resistance of the Florida residents. And that despite the fact that the United States had previously tested genetically modified cabbage moths (Plutella xylostella) in New York and with a genetically modified red cotton bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella) in Arizona, both of which were also developed by Oxitec.
“When something new and revolutionary emerges, the first reaction for many is: ‘Wait a minute,’” says Anthony James, a molecular biologist who studies biotechnologically modified mosquitoes at the University of California, Irvine. “So it’s a big deal that Oxitec can get started with its trial in the United States.”
Aedes aegypti makes up about four percent of the mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. However, according to the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD), which is working closely with Oxitec on this project, the yellow fever mosquito is responsible for virtually all mosquito-borne diseases in the area. Researchers and technicians involved in the project are therefore biotechnologically modified Aedes-aegyptiRelease males. These do not sting, but mate with the wild females who are responsible for the mosquito bites and the transmission of diseases. The highlight: the genetically modified males carry a gene that is passed on to their offspring and kills all female offspring in the early larval stage. Male offspring do not die, but also become carriers of the gene and pass it on to future generations. That’s how it should be Aedes-aegypti-Population gradually shrink.
Aedes aegypti more and more often transmits diseases
The FKMCD approached Oxitec in 2010 to test the approach in the Keys, where mosquitoes are becoming more and more common as carriers of disease. The first cases of locally transmitted dengue fever were detected in Florida in 2009, and locally transmitted zika fever a few years later.
The field trial began with researchers setting up their boxes with Oxitec mosquito eggs at six locations in three areas of the Keys at the end of April 2021. The first males are expected to hatch between early and mid-May. For a total of twelve weeks, around 12,000 mosquitoes are expected to appear every week. A second phase, which begins later in the year, should provide even more data. Then, according to Oxitec, almost 20 million mosquitoes will be released over a period of around 16 weeks.
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