Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Take Flight to Fight Invasive Species in Florida
by Theresa Machemer/Smithsonianmag.com
In late April, the biotechnology company Oxitec placed blue-and-white hexagonal boxes on the properties of six private volunteers around the Florida Keys. After pouring in water, the genetically modified mosquito eggs inside activated and hatched.
Now the first larvae have developed into full-grown male mosquitoes and taken flight, Susan Millis reports for Science News. About 12,000 of Oxitec’s male mosquitoes will fly out of the boxes each week for the next 12 weeks.
Over several mosquito generations, Oxitec’s genetically modified Aedes aegypti could reduce the population of female mosquitoes—which bite and spread disease—and then lower the entire population in the Florida Keys in turn. The current trial marks the first time that genetically modified mosquitoes have been released to fly freely in the United States.
It also comes just after the largest outbreak of dengue in the Florida Keys since 2010.
“Dengue was something we worried about in other areas,” says Andrea Leal, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District’s executive director, to Gwen Filosa at the Miami Herald. “Once that came to our doorstep we’ve seen other diseases. Dengue for us last year and Zika in Miami-Dade. This is really why we’re looking at these new tools for mosquito control.”
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Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.
She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.
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Carol, I appreciate your input, but rethinking Gates and his eugenics agenda is ridiculous. He goal is to depopulate and has been in his agenda for decades. Check the Georgia Guidestones! That’s a sick monument to begin with. Irrigate deserts, grow food for the masses, and provide proper education teach them how to manage reproduction and start teaching future doctors and medical professionals natural cures, not the Rockefeller School of medicine – treat the symptom, not the cause and make money. Agenda 21 / 2030 is approaching sooner than we imagine and it’ll be a disaster for the world’s people.
If this works well, they need to seriously go after bedbugs (and maybe their close relative, batbugs). My husband and I ran into some environmentalists in a restaurant in Santa Fe once. They were talking among themselves, and one said they wouldn’t want to eradicate any insects, except bedbugs.
Interesting – Oxitec is financed by the Gates Foundation – what does that tell you? The eugenicist has his fingers in depopulation everywhere – Covid 19 and others that have polluted India and Africa. Do a check on Vandana Shiva and her presentations.
ferdinand, This genetic modification does nothing more than sterilize the males. That is a sure shot at limiting the mosquito populations. Humans do not need mosquitos for any reason. Eliminate the carriers of diseases that kill humans. There is no goal to genetically modify humans….As for Angelina Jolie, she carried the breast cancer gene that would guarantee that she get breast cancer. She eliminated that chance….so will others and they should be able to do so without judgement. Let’s see, would you jump out of an airplane, if you were not intent on suiciding yourself, without a parachute?
Dbooger, You really should rethink your position on Gates. He is not harming humans. You have been sucked into a conspiracy theory/false reporting world.
ferdinand, Testing positive for the breast cancer genes, BRCA1 or BRCA2 gives a higher risk for developing breast or ovarian cancer compared to someone who does not have this mutation. A positive result does not mean you absolutely will develop cancer. Everyone receives a copy of these genes from the mother and from the father. If one inherits the mutation from one of the parents, there is still a normal copy from the other parent. A woman with a gene mutation has a 7 to 10% chance of getting breast cancer by the age of 80. The more family members who have the mutation, the higher the risk.
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