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posted by n1 on Wednesday January 20 2016, @10:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the arklay-laboratory dept.

A company that creates genetically-modified mosquitoes will open a new factory in Brazil as it expands operations:

Small-scale studies in parts of Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands suggest engineered sterile mosquitoes can reduce wild insect populations by more than 90% when released into the wild. Intrexon said the facility in Piraciciba, São Paulo, will be able to protect 300,000 people.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carry three viruses - Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya.

The studies were carried out by the only company currently trialling GM insects, Oxitec, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Oxitec, which was spun out from the University of Oxford, was bought by US company Intrexon for $160m (£106m) in August last year. Oxitec CEO Hadyn Parry said: "As the principal source for the fastest growing vector-borne infection in the world in Dengue fever, as well as the increasingly challenging Zika virus, controlling the Aedes aegypti population provides the best defence against these serious diseases for which there are no cures."

Also at The Guardian.

Related: CDC issues interim travel guidance related to Zika virus for 14 Countries and Territories in Central and South America and the Caribbean


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by quadrox on Wednesday January 20 2016, @01:34PM

    by quadrox (315) on Wednesday January 20 2016, @01:34PM (#292045)

    Now if only they could make the sterile mosquitoes have sterile children, which in turn spread their sterility further, and then... oh wait... nevermind...

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @04:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @04:52PM (#292132)

    There have been male mosquitoes developed that will be able to reproduce one generation that is sterile. This is useful because they will out-compete fertile males, then their progeny will be sterile and compete further with the remaining fertile males.