Why Florida is releasing genetically modified mosquitoes
Scientists from Oxford-based Oxitec are releasing GM insects in the US for first time in a bid to end diseases like dengue, Zika and malaria
9 May 2021 • 6:00am
The thousands of lab-grown mosquitoes hatching in humid gardens across Florida’s tropical Key West next week will be blissfully ignorant of the controversy they have caused.
Billboards have already begun appearing near busy motorways in protest of their arrival, with one splashed with the words “risky, unnecessary, unwanted” aside a giant picture of the blood-thirsty insect.
“The word ‘genetically modified’ scares people,” says Douglas Mader, a local vet and newspaper columnist living in the Lower Keys.