Updates on the GMO Mosquito Release

Updates on the GMO Mosquito Release

Via Mercola

Story at-a-glance

• Genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes created by biotechnology company Oxitec have been released in the U.S. in Florida and Texas
• 
  
• In March 2022, the EPA granted Oxitec a two-year extension of its Emergency Use Permit, which would allow the biotech company to release additional GE mosquitoes in Florida as well as in four counties in California for the first time
• 
  
• While the EPA extended Oxitec’s EUP, both the Florida Department of Agriculture and California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) must approve Oxitec’s testing in order for it to move forward in their states
• 
  
• Following pushback from legislators, California’s DPR announced Oxitec voluntarily withdrew its research authorization application to test its GE mosquitoes in California
• 
  
• Locally acquired malaria has been nonexistent in the U.S. for the last 20 years, but five such cases have recently been diagnosed — four in Florida and one in Texas

Genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes created by biotechnology company Oxitec have been released in the U.S., even though the long-term effects could be disastrous. Oxitec is using Aedes aegypti (A. aegypti) mosquitoes for this real-world experiment, the species known to carry yellow fever, dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika, West Nile and Mayaro,1 a dengue-like disease.2

In the U.S., Oxitec is marketing the insects as Oxitec Friendly™ mosquitoes, trying to put a nonthreatening name on a reckless project that could quickly backfire. It may even be too late, as the GE mosquitoes have already been released in multiple locations.

In April 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved an initial Experimental Use Permit (EUP), allowing Oxitec to release its GE mosquitoes on 6,240 acres of Monroe County, Florida, and 360 acres of Harris County, Texas.3

By April 2021, Oxitec had released nearly 5 million A. aegypti mosquitoes in the Florida Keys over a seven-month period,4against the wishes of many residents and environmental groups. In March 2022, the EPA granted Oxitec a two-year extension of its EUP,5 which would allow the biotech company to release additional GE mosquitoes in Florida as well as in four counties in California for the first time.

With the extension, GE mosquitoes may be released on 29,400 acres in Stanislaus, Fresno, Tulare and San Bernardino counties in California, through April 30, 2024, “to generate efficacy data in different climatic zones.” Harris County, Texas, is no longer an approved release site for the GE mosquitoes.6

More...