USA TODAY
By Liz Szabo
As Miami struggles to contain the country’s first homegrown Zika outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration gave a green light to a British company planning a controversial field trial of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys that aims to reduce the insects’ population.
The FDA announced Friday it concluded that GMO mosquitoes will have “no significant impact” on the environment around Key Haven, Fla., where the trial will take place. The agency said it considered thousands of comments before reaching its decision. Some local residents had opposed the trial because of unknown effects on wildlife and humans.
Oxitec, the company that makes the GMO mosquitoes, will wait to launch the trial until after the November election, when Florida Keys residents will vote on a non-binding referendum on the trial, said Hadyn Parry, Oxitec’s chief executive officer.
Although scientists have been working to develop genetically engineered mosquitoes to reduce disease for a number of years, the insects have attracted renewed attention this year, as the Zika virus has spread around Latin America and the Caribbean.
The mosquitoes belong to the Aedes aegypti species, which spreads Zika and a variety of tropical diseases, including yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya. The trial was planned long before Zika exploded onto the world scene last year.
The trial aims to protect residents of about 400 homes, said Beth Ranson of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District.