Um mosquitoes are flying to Florida
In the USA, scientists will release genetically modified mosquitoes
Yuri Medvedev, Rossiyskaya Gazeta
Mosquitoes occupy the first place in the ranking of the most deadly creatures for humans. About a million people become their victims every year. The most dangerous is the yellow-boredom mosquito, which can infect not only yellow fever, but also Zika, Chikungunya and dengue viruses. Outbreaks of dengue fever in Florida in 2009-2010 prompted scientists to find ways to combat these mosquitoes. But no methods have produced a noticeable result. In addition, the fight against mosquitoes turned out to be very expensive.
And then the local authorities turned to a British biotech company for help, which is engaged in the breeding of genetically modified mosquitoes. Moreover, only males. Why is preference given to the stronger sex? The fact is that people are bitten only by females who need blood to lay eggs. So, we need to create a mechanism that will reduce their livestock. To do this, males are injected with an additional gene responsible for the production of a special protein. Now all females born from such GM males will die at the larval stage. And males will survive and pass on the deadly gene for females to the next generations. As a result, the number of mosquitoes should decrease, and at the same time the danger of infectious diseases spread by them.
The method has already been tested and has shown its effectiveness in the Cayman Islands, Panama and Brazil. So, in one of the regions of Brazil, it was possible to reduce the number of dangerous mosquitoes by 95 percent.
Nevertheless, the Florida public was outraged, hundreds of thousands of people signed a petition calling for the GM mosquitoes not to be released. The dissatisfied declared that they refused to be guinea pigs for testing mutants. However, the majority of Florida residents were in favor.
The US Environmental Protection Agency does not support the experiment either. They require new tests for at least ten weeks to make sure that none of the females will reach maturity. Environmentalists and activists fear that the spread of altered genes in the wild population could potentially harm endangered and endangered species of birds, insects and mammals that feed on mosquitoes.
But scientists say that more than a billion such mosquitoes have already been released in a few years, and no danger to humans and nature has been noticed. A pilot project to release mosquitoes will begin in Florida in 2021 and will last two years.
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