(News)
– Male mosquitoes do not bite humans – but Florida Keys residents are still worried about plans to release 750 million of them in a mouse control project starting next year. The plan to release genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes received final approval from local authorities on Tuesday night, prompting a call from groups opposed to what they call a “Jurassic Park experiment,” CNN reports. the larval stage – and male animals passing on the adapted genes, drastically reducing populations of Aedes aegypti and the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, including Zika and dengue fever, without the use of pesticides.
The Florida Keys project and another in Texas will be the first time GM mosquitoes have been released in the US, although Oxitec says a trial in Brazil has diminished Aedes aegypti numbers by 95%, Fox reports. Opponents say the Environmental Protection Agency, which gave the project OK in May, failed to seriously analyze the risks, especially for endangered species that can consume the OX5034 mosquitoes. “The release of genetically engineered mosquitoes will inevitably bring Floridians, the environment, and endangered species to mind in the midst of a pandemic,” Dana Perls told Friends of the Earth. “This approval is about maximizing Oxitec’s profits, not about the urgent need to tackle mosquito-borne diseases.” (Read more mosquito stories.)
.
