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Tens of thousands of genetically modified (GMO) mosquitoes have been released in Djibouti in an effort to stop the spread of an invasive species that transmits malaria, the BBC reported.
The friendly non-biting male Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, developed by Oxitec, a UK-based biotechnology company, carry a gene that kills female offspring before they reach maturity.
Only female mosquitoes bite and transmit malaria and other viral diseases.
It is the first time such mosquitoes have been released in East Africa and the second time in the continent.
“We have built good mosquitoes that do not bite, that do not transmit disease. And when we release these friendly mosquitoes, they seek out and mate with wild type female mosquitoes,” the BBC quotes Oxitec head Grey Frandsen as saying.
The laboratory-produced mosquitoes carry a “self-limiting” gene that prevents female mosquito offspring from surviving to adulthood when they mate.
Only their male offspring survive but would eventually die out, according to the scientists behind the project.
