FDA Claims New Genetically Modified Anti-Zika Mosquito Is Safe
By Joe Wright
ActivistPost.com
MARCH 11, 2016
Boy that was quick. Stir up a bit of fear in the media about a disease that is not even proven to be dangerous and what do you get? Several vaccine projects and mutant mosquitoes programmed to mate with Zika-carrying mosquitoes to make them sterile. What could go wrong?
Biotech company Intrexon Corp announced today that its genetically modified mosquito has been deemed safe for the environment in preliminary findings by the FDA.
Reuters reports:
A genetically engineered mosquito being used in the fight against Zika will not have a significant impact on the environment, the maker Intrexon Corp said, citing preliminary findings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Males of the self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito are modified so their offspring die before being able to reproduce, says Intrexon, a U.S. synthetic biology company.
The FDA findings agree with the draft environmental assessment submitted by Oxitec, the UK unit of Intrexon that developed the mosquito.
When the first alleged Zika cases made headlines, they appeared in a test area where thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes were released. Many speculated that these mutants could be the cause of the mysterious new mosquito-borne disease. No one yet knows the result of releasing these laboratory GMO mutants in the wild.
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