Genetically Modified Mosquitos

In an article from STAT news, the United States approved of genetically modified mosquitos to be released in the Florida Keys as sort of a 'clinical trial' to see if they will slow the spread of insect-born illness. The company, Oxitec of Oxford, England, are injecting Aedes aegypti mosquito eggs with two types of genes. One of the genes make the mosquitos die if they are not exposed to the antibiotic, tetracycline, which will happen once they are released from the lab, and the other gene makes the mosquito fluoresce so they can be identified as being modified. These types of mosquitos are the main carrier of the deadly dengue and chikungunya disease and potentially the zika virus. The main goal of releasing these modified mosquitos is to decrease the population of this species of insects. When the modified mosquitos, which are all male, mate and have offspring, those offspring will die before adulthood and will ultimately decrease the population of the Aedes aegypti species and stop the spread of these harmful illnesses. The FDA says that this trial will have no harmful affects on human, animals, or our ecosystem. According to the article by Sharon Begley of STAT news, "Oxitec has conducted similar trials in Brazil, Panama, and the Cayman Islands, reducing the population of Aedes aegypti more than 90 percent." Once the test is cleared, the experiment will become a ‘full-scale’ release.