 "FDA says engineered anti-Zika mosquito environmentally safe")
US health regulators said a genetically engineered mosquito being used in the fight against Zika will not have a significant impact on the environment, possibly paving the way for the technique to be used.
The self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito was developed by Oxitec, the UK-subsidiary of US synthetic biology company Intrexon. The male mosquitoes are modified so their offspring will die before reaching adulthood and being able to reproduce.
Preliminary findings of an investigational trial by the US Food and Drug Administration conducted in the Florida Keys region ruled that the genetically modified mosquitoes will not have a significant impact on the environment, effectively agreeing with an environmental assessment submitted by Oxitec.
Zika virus, first detected in Africa in the 1940s, was unknown in the Americas until last year when it appeared in northeastern Brazil.
Florida's warm climate and nearly year-round mosquito season make it particularly vulnerable to spreading, although so far all of the state's cases were acquired abroad, officials have said.
"If we do get permission from the FDA to go ahead, we are hoping that we will start running the program sometime in 2016," Oxitec Chief Executive Hadyn Parry said on Friday.
The self-limiting strain of the Aedes aegypti mosquito was developed by Oxitec, the UK-subsidiary of US synthetic biology company Intrexon. The male mosquitoes are modified so their offspring will die before reaching adulthood and being able to reproduce.
Preliminary findings of an investigational trial by the US Food and Drug Administration conducted in the Florida Keys region ruled that the genetically modified mosquitoes will not have a significant impact on the environment, effectively agreeing with an environmental assessment submitted by Oxitec.
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The findings come on the heels of rising concern over Zika virus in the US, with Florida declaring a public health emergency last month.
Zika virus, first detected in Africa in the 1940s, was unknown in the Americas until last year when it appeared in northeastern Brazil.
Florida's warm climate and nearly year-round mosquito season make it particularly vulnerable to spreading, although so far all of the state's cases were acquired abroad, officials have said.
"If we do get permission from the FDA to go ahead, we are hoping that we will start running the program sometime in 2016," Oxitec Chief Executive Hadyn Parry said on Friday.