First US Field Test of GM Mosquitoes Begins in Florida

After years of push back, the first batch of Oxitec’s engineered mosquitoes, designed to reduce population numbers, have been released in the Keys.

Written byChristie Wilcox, PhD

| 2 min read

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An Oxitec mosquito release box from the Florida Keys Friendly Mosquito Project

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An Oxitec mosquito release box
OXITEC

Update (April 19, 2022): Oxitec presented results from their open-air Florida mosquito trial in a webinar on April 6. The trial went as expected, the firm reports, with all females that inherited the engineered gene dying before reaching adulthood, and the gene itself disappearing from the population after a few generations of mosquitoes. However, Nature notes that the trail was not designed for population suppression or quantifying public health impacts, so further trials are needed to determine if releases can have an impact on vector-borne diseases.

Update (March 10, 2022): The US Environmental Protection Agency extended Oxitec’s Experimental Use Permit for two years to allow the company to deploy additional genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Florida, as well as in four counties in California, where the mosquitoes have yet to be released. All together, the permit allows for up to 2.45 billion mosquitoes ...

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Meet the Author

Christie Wilcox, PhD
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Christie was a well-established science blogger and writer when she was awarded a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology with a specialization in ecology, evolution and conservation biology from the University of Hawai‘i in 2014 for her research on the genetics of lionfishes. A short two years later, she published her debut book Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry, which received widespread acclaim, and after that, she fully left academia behind and established herself as a science writer and editor. She joined The Scientist in 2021 as newsletter editor and left as senior editor in 2023. She is a member of the Author’s Guild, the Northwest Science Writers Association, and the National Association of Science Writers.
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