Factory breeds engineered mosquitoes to fight malaria

A British company breeding mosquitoes whose offspring cannot spread malaria is set to start releasing the insects into Djibouti city by the end of the year.

- RACHEL SCHRAER

Genetically-engineered male mosquitoes hatched in boxes placed around the East African capital will produce female babies with genes that cause them to die before they reach adulthood. Only female mosquitoes bite and spread disease.

The scheme is designed to slash the number of mosquitoes to reduce cases of malaria, which currently infects up to 10 per cent of the country a year. Malaria is among the world's biggest killers of children under five.

“So much has been achieved with existing tools,” like bed nets and insecticide spraying, says Neil Morrison, chief strategy officer at Oxitec, the British biotech company which produces the altered mosquitoes. “But progress is stalling” as resistance is being built up.

As global funding to fight malaria reduces, thanks to cuts by the US, UK and a number of other nations, Morrison adds: “We just need to get a bit smarter in terms of how we think about controlling mosquitoes.”

A piece of code is inserted into the genetic material of the mosquitoes at a research facility in the UK, before the “friendly” mosquitoes are transported to a “mosquito factory” in Djibouti, Morrison explains. A chemical antidote is then given to the mosquitoes to “switch off” the code, allowing them to survive and breed within that “factory”.