A British biotech firm this week got the green light from U.S. regulators to release over 2 million genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida and California as part of an expanded effort to combat transmission of diseases like Zika, dengue fever and canine heartworm.
The experimental public health effort, which still requires final approval from state regulators, follows the 2021 release of 144,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys by British biotech firm Oxitec.
Oxitec said its genetically modified male, and thus non-biting, mosquitoes "find and mate with invasive female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, mediating a reduction of the target population as the female offspring of these encounters cannot survive," thus reducing the overall population.
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