The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just approved a plan to release millions of Bill Gates-funded genetically-modified mosquitos into parts of the US.
The disturbing plan, which was created by the British biotech firm Oxitec, which is bankrolled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is apparently intended to combat the spread of diseases such as Zika, yellow fever, dengue and
While the EPA approved the plan, the company still needs approval from the individual states. However, there has been some criticism.
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“When you disrupt an ecological system whether it’s a small disruption or a big disruption, you’re going to have an impact,” said Dana Perls, a program manager at Friends of the Earth, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy group.
“Once you release these mosquitos into the environment, you cannot recall them,” she said. “This could, in fact, create problems that we don’t have already.”
Perls says that without confirmed data about the rate of disease transmission from the Aedes aegypti mosquito, it’s unclear if the genetically-modified mosquitos will behave the way Oxitec predicts.
Per Katu:
Among potential concerns, Perls says a hybrid species could be created that is difficult to eradicate, or another type of mosquito could simply take the place of the Aedes aegypti. She feels there needs to be a better system in place for monitoring the engineered species before releasing it.
An invasive species of mosquito, called Aedes aegypti, first appeared in California in 2013. In 2020, it also appeared in Florida for the first time in 75 years.
Although they account for a relatively small portion of the total mosquito population in those areas, they reportedly cause a large number of cases of human disease, and are known to be particularly aggressive when it comes to biting people.
Oxitec has genetically engineered roughly 2.4 million male (meaning they don’t bite) mosquitos to contain the number of Aedes aegypti.
The male mosquitos have a “self-limiting” gene that causes the population to die out over time. The idea is that they will mate with the invasive female species, “mediating a reduction of the target population as the female offspring of these encounters cannot survive,” the company said.
This method was also carried out in 2021, when Oxitec released 144,000 genetically-modified mosquitos in the Florida Keys as part of a pilot project, which the company describes as “a success.”
Oxitec also stresses that the new mosquitos will not harm other “beneficial insects,” like bees and butterflies.
