A biotech company with deep ties to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is about to release mosquitoes with synthetic DNA into California, supposedly to control the state’s mosquito population.
Oxitec, a British biotechnology company specializing in the development of genetically engineered insects, recently said it has created one of its first genetically modified organisms by changing the DNA of the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito.
“In California, since first being detected in 2013, this mosquito has rapidly spread to more than 20 counties throughout the state, increasing the risk of transmission of dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever and other diseases,” said Oxitec.
According to the biotech company, the female offspring produced by the genetically modified mosquitoes will die, causing the population of the insect in the United States to plummet.
Nathan Rose, Oxitec’s head of regulatory affairs, said testing of its genetically modified insects against Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in a Brazilian neighborhood resulted in a 95 percent reduction of the mosquito population in just 13 weeks.
A biotech company with deep ties to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is about to release mosquitoes with synthetic DNA into California, supposedly to control the state’s mosquito population.
Oxitec, a British biotechnology company specializing in the development of genetically engineered insects, recently said it has created one of its first genetically modified organisms by changing the DNA of the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito.
“In California, since first being detected in 2013, this mosquito has rapidly spread to more than 20 counties throughout the state, increasing the risk of transmission of dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever and other diseases,” said Oxitec.
According to the biotech company, the female offspring produced by the genetically modified mosquitoes will die, causing the population of the insect in the United States to plummet.
Nathan Rose, Oxitec’s head of regulatory affairs, said testing of its genetically modified insects against Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in a Brazilian neighborhood resulted in a 95 percent reduction of the mosquito population in just 13 weeks.
