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FLPanhandle

(7,107 posts) Fri Mar 11, 2016, 06:40 PM Mar 2016

Genetically modified mosquitoes clear key hurdle for Key West test

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article65431382.html

The release of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys cleared a significant hurdle Friday when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced they pose no significant environmental danger.

The preliminary findings, to be published in the Federal Register, will be open for public comment for the next 30 days. But the initial federal review likely clears the way for a long-delayed field trial by British producer Oxitec in the tiny affluent neighborhood of Key Haven a mile east of Key West.

Pressure has mounted to speed up testing after the arrival of the Zika virus, which is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, in the U.S. and Florida. While no cases have been contracted locally, health officials fear South Florida could face an outbreak. Oxitec’s genetically modified mosquitoes have already been released in South America, where health officials say an ongoing Zika outbreak could infect 4 million people by the end of the year. The virus is tied to a host of health problems and may be the cause of a spike in babies born with microcephaly in Brazil.

But some residents in the Keys, backed by opponents of the genetic modification industry, have fought bitterly to stop the release, mounting a petition that collected 160,000 signatures.

Pitched as a safer, more affordable way of battling Oxitec’s modified male mosquitoes are engineered to produce offspring with a kill-switch, or defective gene that kills them. The offspring also bear a florescent marker gene so larvae can be identified when inspectors conduct mosquito counts and gauge the progress of the program.

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I think this is a great idea. No pesticides that damage the environment, targeted to a specific species.

The promise of genetic engineering is coming true.