After sending 750 million genetically-engineered mosquitoes in Florida in 2021, British company Oxitec is planning to expand the mosquito drops by releasing 2 billion of them in California and the Florida Keys.
The mosquitoes are entirely all males whose offspring die before they reach adulthood. Because they’re males, they do not bite. The purpose of the drops is to lower the incidence of mosquito-derived tropical diseases like yellow fever and dengue by drastically reducing the mosquito population.
The only thing is, when Oxitec dropped GE mosquitoes in Brazil the offspring didn’t always die, according to researchers not connected with Oxitec. Oxitec disputes their findings even though their own research showed that 3 to 4% of the offspring did not die.
SOURCES:
BGR March 10, 2022
DW Science September 13, 2019