Scientists in Brazil are planning on unleashing millions of genetically modified mosquitoes into the public in an attempt to stop the spread of the Zika virus.
Despite the fact that evidence shows that GM mosquitoes were responsible for the deadly virus spreading across the globe, scientists have been given the go-ahead by the government to release the GM mosquitoes into the wild
Phys.org reports:
They will mate with the females of the ordinary mosquitoes, spawning babies with a genetically inbuilt flaw that causes them to die quickly.
With their work done, the modified father mosquitoes will then give up the ghost themselves—as they are genetically programmed to do.
Oxitec says its factory in the town of Piracicaba, northwest of Sao Paulo, can produce 60 million mutant mosquitoes a week.
Piracicaba is the world’s “first and biggest factory” of genetically modified mosquitos, said Oxitec president Hadyn Parry.