Risk vs Reward: The Controversy Surrounding GMO Mosquitoes -

Mosquito under a microscope.

When thinking of the most deadly animal on earth, most would imagine a lion, bear or something equally as ferocious. An animal with such a high death toll under its belt most likely is equipped with fangs, teeth or even poison, right? How about piercing sucking mouthparts and heat vision; or Malaria? Mosquitoes claim more deaths than lions and bears combined, but not by shear force, by the transmission of diseases. They are a disease vector, and the worst of its kind. With the death toll buzzing in well over 500,000 annually it is no wonder State Legislatures are coming together to battle this disease spreading nuisance.

Recently there have been talks of a company Oxitec releasing genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys where there is an overabundance of these creatures. This is a controversial issue for most due to the a few reasons. One being that the GMO mosquitoes have synthetic DNA laced with protein fragments from the herpes simplex virus and E. coli bacteria and even though the blood sucking females are manually removed from the pollen feeding male group, a few could be overlooked and if bitten by a GMO female mosquito, does genetically modified DNA enter the bloodstream? Oxitec says no and the proteins are “non-toxic and non-allergenic”

The second controversial issue is the Florida Keys have not had an outbreak of Dengue in years and Chikungunya has yet to have any cases in that area so why do the experiment there? And the last controversial issue would be the ecological balance. The targeted mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is an invasive species, but what about the birds and fish that rely on mosquitoes for food? Granted it is only 1 of the 45 species that dwell in the area, but knocking down 90% of the population may set off an unbalance. Safe Home would love to hear what you think on the article. Please comment below or post to our Facebook to tell us what you think!