A swarm of genetically-engineered mosquitoes may soon break out in the Florida Keys.
But it’s likely good news in the fight against the Zika virus.
Federal regulators on ???.?????.?????.????????Friday okayed a field trial to release genetically modified mosquitoes in Key Haven, Florida. The goal is to take out the local population of aedes aegyptimosquitoes, which spread Zika and other diseases through their bites.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that after an extensive review and thousands of public comments, the agency found the field trial “will not result in a significant impact on the environment.”
The FDA’s announcement arrives as Florida is racing to contain an outbreak of Zika in downtown Miami. At least 16 people have been infected via mosquito bites, marking the first outbreak from local mosquitoes in the continental United States.
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The genetically-engineered mosquitoes, created by the British biotechnology company Oxitec, were created so that the offspring die before reaching adulthood.
Oxitec is proposing to release its male mosquitoes -- which do not bite or spread disease -- with wild femaleaedes aegyptiin the Florida Keys so that the female’s offspring die, thus reducing the local population of Zika-carrying mosquitoes.
Oxitec said that similar field trials in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands helped reduce the population of aedes aegyptiby more than 90 percent -- an “exceptional level” of mosquito control compared to conventional mosquito-fighting methods, such as insecticides, according to a Friday press release.
“We’ve been developing this approach for many years, and from these results we are convinced that our solution is both highly effective and has sound environmental credentials,” Oxitec CEO Hadyn Perry said in a statement.
“We are now looking forward to working with the community in the Florida Keys moving forward,” he said.
The FDA said its finding this week does not mean Oxitec’s modified mosquitoes are approved for commercial use.
The biotech firm must still meet local, state and federal requirements and work with its local partner, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, to decide whether and when to start the proposed field trial in Key Haven, according to the FDA.
An advisory committee convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) recently reviewed Oxitec’s genetically-engineered mosquitoes as part of the ongoing response to the Zika outbreak in the Americas and Caribbean.
The committee found that while the technology has been shown to reduce aedes aegyptipopulations in small-scale field trials, there’s still an “absence of data” on its broader disease-fighting impacts.
A mother holds her baby and a can of insect repellent in Miami, Aug. 2, 2016. Credit: Getty Images “Additionally, sustained release of transgenic male mosquitoes is needed to maintain suppression” of wild Zika-carrying populations, according to the expert group.
Still, the WHO committee recommended “carefully planned pilot deployment” of Oxitec’s modified mosquitoes, together with rigorous independent monitoring and evaluation.