By R Andrew Ohge aka Rex Dexter

Oxitech Is Paying For It-GM Mosquito Trials To Proceed In Florida: https://youtu.be/W3yL9XRC2Kw

Published on Mar 28, 2015

Mosquito Control despite strong oppositions from Key Haven is thinking of going forward with the release of GM mosquitoes.

Mosquito Control is expected to finalize a contract with British-based Oxitec at its April 21 meeting to release genetically modified mosquitoes at a test site in Key Haven, just outside of Key West.

The Mosquito Control Board finalized 90 percent of the contract last month.

The final 10 percent is related to trial protocol, chemicals and equipment related to the project.

Oxitec has created a genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquito that it says controls populations.

Sterile males are released into the wild and, since females generally mate only once, they wouldn’t produce offspring from the modified males.

There has been no reports of Dengue for a few years now.

Why is Mosquito Control Board so hell bent on releasing these?

Even though the residents heavily opposed this, as the video below showed, the FDA, as expected, allowed the project to move forward.

https://youtu.be/tNcqU5SNEWA It’s Important To Note Florida Residents Did NOT Want This Trial To Be Conducted & Petitioned The FDA To Stop It:

Keys residents who oppose Mosquito Control’s release of genetically modified mosquitoes have filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration demanding further study before any release is permitted.

The petition requests that the Commissioner of Food and Drugs complete a detailed environmental impact statement for the field trial of Oxitec’s genetically modified (GM) Aedes aegypti mosquito in the Florida Keys.

In addition, the document asks that the FDA establish a committee of experts and local residents to review the proposal from Oxitec and also to convene a public meeting in the Florida Keys for the public review of the company’s proposal with the appointed committee members present.

The FDA stated in its 2009 Guidance 187 that certain genetically modified animals would be under the agency’s jurisdiction.

According to Michael Welber, a member of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition, “this trial would be the first of its kind in the United States and that makes it imperative that the FDA exercise its authority over the release,” he said.

Welber went on to comment that the FDA should “collaborate with all other relevant federal agencies to thoroughly assess the genetically engineered animals’ potential environmental and public health impacts.”

According to the Environmental Coalition there are substantial questions about whether the mosquito will have a significant effect on the human environment.

Oxitec’s own research revealed that 15 percent of its mosquito larvae can survive to adulthood when in the presence of cat food contaminated with tetracycline.

This commonly used antibiotic is also found in sewage and septic tanks, meaning that GM mosquito survival in the environment is very likely.

Residents of Marathon, where the GM mosquitoes would be bred, are very concerned in particular about research done by GeneWatch UK indicating that insect factories such as the one that Mosquito Control proposes could spread antibiotic resistant bacteria or superbugs into the environment, a serious risk to human health.

The petition also argues that aggressive Asian tiger mosquitoes could colonize areas where GM mosquitoes have wiped out local populations, spreading chikungunya and dengue as they go.

An Oxitec Press Release [http://www.oxitec.com/health/florida-keys-project/] outlined how it all would work.

[http://www.oxitec.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/Information-about-Florida-trial-EA-2015.pdf?db0f11]

Here’s the thrust of it:

Florida Keys Project

Oxitec and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) are collaborating on a field trial for the OX513A Aedes aegypti mosquito.

http://www.oxitec.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/Information-about-Florida-trial-EA-2015.pdf?db0f11, and here: http://www.oxitec.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/Oxitec-FKMCD-mosquito-control-project-flyer-Oct2014.pdf?db0f11 For more information you can view our educational flyers here:and here:

Wild Mosquito Problem

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are a non-native species in the USA.

They are more than just a nuisance as they can spread serious diseases such as dengue fever and chikungunya.

Dengue fever and chikungunya are currently not an active health threat in the Florida Keys including Key West as FKMCD has been working hard to reduce the Aedes aegypti pest.

They are looking for helpful ways to keep mosquito populations down to an acceptable level and the Oxitec technology is a new tool in the fight against mosquitoes.

Technology Benefits

If we use fewer insecticides this will allow more beneficial predators and insects to flourish.

Both the released mosquitoes and their offspring will die – they do not stay in the environment.

This approach targets only the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that can spread disease because the Oxitec males only produce offspring with their own species.

Project Plan

Oxitec and FKMCD are working together to inform the community about the mosquito releases and to answer questions.

If FDA agrees that releases can proceed following their review, we anticipate starting in 2015.

Oxitec male mosquitoes would be released up to 3 times a week.

Project results will be made available to the public.

The Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA-CVM) is working with other agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for federal regulation of this project.

There will be no releases until the FDA has completed an evaluation.

The FDA will issue public notification when it publishes the draft Environmental Assessment for comment on http://www.regulations.gov.

Publications

http://www.oxitec.com/publications

Questions?

floridatrial@oxitec.com

questions@keysmosquito.org

So…I wonder why we have cases of Zika popping up in the US from a an experimental species that was supposed to ‘breed itself to death’?

More things that “make you go Hmmmmm…”

NOTE: All This Went On Between 2013 and 2015. THIS Story Just Popped Up Today:

UK Company Creates Genetically-Modified Mosquitoes to Help in Fight Against Zika

JANUARY 30, 2016

IN THE space of a few weeks, health authorities around the world have mobilised to fight what could possibly be the biggest global health threat since the emergence of Ebola.

While the Zika virus does not directly kill, the links brain deformities in newborn babies has led US President Barack Obama to call for urgent action, and the leaders of several South American countries to warn women against falling pregnant until a solution is found.

The Australian Olympic Committee has also advised pregnant team members to reconsider going to this year’s Rio Games because of the potential risk, and our own government has issued travel warnings for the regions where the virus is found.

While experts are already working on developing a vaccine it could be years before it is ready.

However there might be another solution, one that is a little left of field — mutant mosquitoes.

A UK company set up by scientists from Oxford University have developed a genetically-modified mosquito whose offspring die.

Oxitec has genetically engineered a line of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the mosquito that carries dengue fever and chikungunya as well as Zika.

The male mosquitoes are altered to require a dietary supplement that can’t be found in nature and subsequently die.

When they mate with a female it passes on this defective gene.

Trials on the Aedes mosquito have already been carried out in Brazil as part of a program to combat dengue fever which have proved successful.

In Eldorado, Sao Paulo, where the GM mosquitoes were released, the number of dengue cases dropped from 133 to just one in a year, Spectator reported.

[https://health.spectator.co.uk/can-genetically-modified-killer-mosquitoes-stop-the-zika-virus/]

Whether these mutant mosquitoes will be used in the fight against this new threat remains to be seen.

Oxitec is already awaiting the US Food and Drug Administration approval to conduct trials in the Florida Keys following an outbreak of dengue fever in Key West several years ago. [There Was NO Such Outbreak, As Pointed To In The Articles And Videos Above]

When news of the plan broke, critics labelled the insects as killer Frankenstein mosquitoes, arguing tampering with nature could cause unknown side effects.

CAN THESE MUTANT MOSQUITOES HARM HUMANS?

On its website, Oxitec says even if someone was bitten by a modified Aedes aegypti mosquito, no genetically modified DNA would enter the bloodstream.

“Using advanced genetics Oxitec breeds and releases ‘sterile’ males of the damage-causing species,” the site says.

“This highly targeted form of biological control is safe to other species, causes no lasting impact on the environment and is cost-effective.

“Our studies show that the proteins we’ve introduced would not be harmful to humans:

We have commissioned research with sophisticated computer programs (known as bioinformatics research), to see if the new proteins have any similarities to known allergens or toxins which could be harmful.

“We found no similarity to any substance which could present a risk of allergy or toxicity, so we’re confident that the new proteins would not be harmful to people.”

WHY ARE WE SO WORRIED ABOUT THE ZIKA VIRUS?

For years the Zika virus was considered relatively harmless, only causing flu-like symptoms in sufferers.

But a recent spate of babies being born with microcephaly in Brazil in areas where the virus has recently appeared has sparked fears that unless this problem is defeated, affected countries could be left with a major health crisis for years to come.

Microcephaly causes the underdevelopment of the brain in unborn babies. Once a foetus develops the condition it cannot be reversed.

Those born with it will suffer a lifetime of developmental difficulties, some will even die.

While experts have yet to confirm if the Zika virus does directly cause microcephaly, the cluster of more than 3800 babies being born with it in Brazil since October was enough for authorities to take notice.

Around 160 were born with microcephaly the year before.

Just this week, the World Health Organisation said it believes the Zika virus will spread throughout the Americas prompting a response from the White House “to accelerate research efforts to make available better diagnostic tests, to develop vaccines and therapeutics”.

So far, the Zika virus has been found in 22 other countries in recent months.

There have also been reported cases in Australia but it is believed the last case was in 2014, Fairfax reported.

[http://www.smh.com.au/national/urgent-travel-warning-for-pregnant-australian-women-at-risk-of-zika-virus-20160125-gmdv5u.html]

President Obama was understood to have been briefed on the potential spread of the virus by senior officials on Tuesday, with one recent study suggesting that the virus could affect areas where 60 per cent of the US population lives, the BBC reported.

Professor Scott Weaver, director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, told the BBC people should be frightened by the virus.

“It’s certainly a very significant risk,” he said, “and if infection of the foetus does occur and microcephaly develops we have no ability to alter the outcome of that very bad disease which is sometimes fatal or leaves children mentally incapacitated for the remainder of their life”.

WHAT ELSE ARE THE AUTHORITIES DOING?

Scientists in the US are working with authorities in Brazil to develop a vaccine that will cure and protect against the virus.*

And while they believe it could be ready within two years, it could take up to a decade before it can be widely distributed because of the lengthy approval process it needs to go through in the US.

The Brazilian government has also been frantically spraying affected regions, deploying more than 200,000 soldiers to help in the fight.

But more than 1.5 million people in the country have already been affected and there are widespread concerns it will affect even more.

This is worrying for Brazil which will not only host the Olympics this year but its annual Carnival.

This has prompted United Airlines to offer customers concerned about contracting the virus to postpone or cancel their trips to not just Brazil but any country affected by Zika.

American Airlines also began to issuing refunds to pregnant passengers holding tickets to El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Guatemala.

Behind ALL Of This We Find Bill Gates-You Know-Hillary’s Good Friend And Supporter:

BIOWEAPON! Zika Virus Is Being Spread by GMO Mosquitoes Funded by Gates!

Recent Video: https://youtu.be/7Za416xxdkA

Published on Jan 27, 2016

DAHBOO777

https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/07/08/genetically-engineered-mosquitoes-nearly-eradicate-dengue-fever-spreading-types-in-brazil-trial/

http://www.healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/outbreak-microcephaly-connected-zika-virus-brazil-12715

The Zika virus, which has been detected in 18 of the 26 states in Brazil, is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

A generically modified version has been developed by a British biotech company called Oxitec.

The results of a trial in Brazil published this summer involved genetically engineered mosquitoes that allegedly fight the spread of dengue fever, yellow fever, chikungunya, and zika virus.

But scientists have warned the study had too few controls in place to ensure that the mosquitoes released into the wild did not end up spreading dengue fever, yellow fever, chikungunya, and zika virus.

In short, these genetically modified mosquitoes could be the cause of the Zika virus outbreak in Brazil and other parts of South and Central America.

“If these mosquitoes are completely safe, then why the hush-hush?” says Gurmit Singh, chair of the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development in Malaysia, another country slated for an Oxitec field trial.

http://news.sciencemag.org/2010/11/gm

Oxford Insect Technologies, a British biotech company, has developed the insect with funds from the Bill and Gates foundation.

It conducted the first outdoor trials with transgenic Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the Caribbean island of Grand Cayman in autumn 2009.

MORE Resources:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxitec

http://www.lgcstandards-atcc.org/prod

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxitec

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-W

https://www.rt.com/usa/330228-zika-vi

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31…

http://qz.com/602109/theres-a-chance-

http://danceontheribbonofnight.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-saga-of-oxitechs-self-eliminating.html