Two billion genetically modified mosquitoes are going to be released in parts of Florida and California, USA. Responsible for approximately 750,000 deaths per year, the mosquito is the deadliest species for humans.
It is a release of mosquitoes on an unprecedented scale, led by the American company Oxitec, and which aims to reduce the population of these insects, and therefore the spread of certain diseases.
The specimens sent to the wild would be males of the Aedes aegypti species, carefully chosen since they give birth to non-viable larvae after reproduction.
GMO mosquitoes
Very harmful, mosquitoes are the cause of serious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, the Zika virus and chikungunya. Scientists therefore had the idea of genetically modifying them.
These GMO mosquitoes, called OX5034, are harmless to humans. Larvae born from mating with protein-deficient females die before they mature.
750 million of these hybrid mosquitoes had already been released into the wild last year by Oxitec.
According to scientists, this release of mosquitoes would be safe for the environment, and much less harmful for the planet than the use of insecticides.
The usual predators of mosquitoes (birds and bats) can indeed still feed on them, and species threatened by insecticides, such as bees, are not impacted.