Genetically modified mosquitoes can help control Aedes Aegypti population and curb vector-borne diseases like Dengue, Zika and Yellow fever. The plan to release over 750 million of these engineered mosquitoes into the Florida Keys in 2021 and 2022 has been approved. So the experts can finally execute their plans to confront the "urgent crisis" that Florida has been facing. As we know that only the female mosquito bites for blood and causes the spread of vector-borne diseases because she needs to mature her eggs while on the other hand the males just feed on nectar. This project targets the female mosquitoes aka Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes. The genetically-engineered mosquito called OX5034 will be released in the Florida Keys as they have been altered to produce female offspring that die in the larval stage. Which means they won't hatch to grow large enough to bite and spread disease. World Mosquito Day 2020: How to Prevent Mosquito Bites? 6 Natural Home Remedies That Repel Mosquitoes. 

The project has been approved by the Environment Protection Agency in May and it aims to study if these genetically modified mosquito serve as a better alternative to spraying insecticides to control the Aedes aegypti to curb deadly diseases, such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.

Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety, in a statement released on Wednesday, said, "With all the urgent crises facing our nation and the State of Florida — the Covid-19 pandemic, racial injustice, climate change — the administration has used tax dollars and government resources for a Jurassic Park experiment. Now the Monroe County Mosquito Control District has given the final permission needed. What could possibly go wrong? We don't know, because EPA unlawfully refused to seriously analyze environmental risks, now without further review of the risks, the experiment can proceed".

"This is an exciting development because it represents the ground-breaking work of hundreds of passionate people over more than a decade in multiple countries, all of whom want to protect communities from dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and other vector-borne diseases," Oxitec CEO Grey Frandsen said in a statement at the time.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 21, 2020 10:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).