[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”” padding_right=”” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][title size=”1″ content_align=”center” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=”#000000″ margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=”” id=””]

Comment period extended on GE mosquito proposal

[/title][fusion_text]Thursday, April 7th 2016

The Food and Drug Administration is extending the comment period on its proposal to allow an experimental release of gene-edited mosquitoes in Florida to combat the Zika virus. The new comment deadline is May 13. FDA had received requests to extend the deadline from Friends of the Earth, the Center for Food Safety, Food & Water Watch, and GMO Free USA. The male mosquitoes that would be released by Oxitec Ltd. in the Florida Keys have two new genes – a color marker and a “self-limiting” pest control gene that causes offspring to die. he species of mosquito, Aedes aegypti, “is known to transmit potentially debilitating human viral diseases, including Zika, dengue, yellow fever, and chikungunya and has been found in some U.S. states, but is most prevalent in the South,” FDA said. “Open field trials of the OX513A genetically engineered mosquito have been conducted in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama, and Malaysia.”

[/fusion_text][/fullwidth]