The mosquito might be small, but it’s actually the world’s deadliest animal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mosquitoes transmit diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people a year worldwide, but now, they are the target.
The Florida Keys alone are home to dozens of mosquito species. Now researchers there are targeting just the aedes aegypti.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are the ones that vector the diseases we worry most about, like dengue, Chikungunya and Zika.
In a pilot program, scientists deployed male mosquitoes with a bacteria that renders them sterile, but does not alter the genetics of the species.
In Africa, where malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people -- mostly children -- work is underway to genetically modify the anopheles gambiae species that spreads malaria.
In one lab in Uganda, scientists from nonprofit Target Malaria are focusing longer term efforts on a gene mutation that sterilizes female mosquitoes.
“The current plan with these genetically controlled mosquitoes is to eliminate the populations and species of mosquitoes specifically that spread human disease,” said Matt Hoch, of Nova Southeastern University.
But should we? That’s a question for bioethicists.
“We are not in favor of remaking the world to suit human desires,” the Hastings Center for Bioethics in New York said in a statement.
In a paper published in the journal “Science,” bioethicists conclude deliberate extinction may be acceptable, but in their words, “extremely rarely.”
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
