QUESTION Is it possible to breed mosquitoes in the laboratory and then sterilize them and release them into the environment in order to reduce their rate of reproducing. ANSWER That is a very good question, and indeed efforts to genetically modify mosquitoes in order to control the various diseases they transmit are underway in many laboratories across the world. For almost 15 years, … [Read more...]
GM Mosquito Factory: Can Oxitec Mosquitoes Help Stamp Out Malaria?
In plastic and glass containers thousands of mosquitoes are hatching in a British "mosquito factory." On strips of brown paper there are hundreds of thousands of little black mosquito eggs. "Here we practice birth control for mosquitoes," says Hadyn Parry, CEO of Oxitec, a British bio-research company that makes genetically modified mosquito eggs. The eggs produce sterile male mosquitoes, … [Read more...]