Brazil to unleash GM-mosquito swarms

Biotech company Oxitec of Abingdon, UK, has opened a factory in Campinas, Brazil, to raise millions of modified mosquitoes OX513A (Aedes aegypti). Once released, they will mate with wild females, whose offspring then die before adulthood. That should cut the number of dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

 

In April, Brazil's National Technical Commission for Biosecurity (CTNBio) approved their commercial use.

 

The mosquitoes could be an important step forward in controlling dengue, which affects more than 50 million people every year, with a 30-fold increase in the last 50 years. There is no vaccine or preventive drug, so all anyone can do is to spray insecticide on a large scale in a bid to kill dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

 

The Brazilian state of Bahia is one of the affected areas. A state of alert, declared in February, is in force in 10 rural districts. Oxitec plans to release millions of modified mosquitoes in the Bahia town of Jacobina, as part of an expanded research programme. A larger release could follow if the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency also lends its approval, as expected.