Mutant Mosquitoes in Brazil

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Not only do the people of Brazil have to deal with the wildfires in the Amazon, they now have to deal with mutant mosquitoes released within the country.  During this past decade, the University of Yale attempted to limit the population of the Aedes mosquito in Brazil for the purpose of limiting the effects of diseases contracted from the insects such as the Zika virus, dengue, and yellow fever.

The scientists took male mosquitoes and mutated a reproductive gene that caused for their offspring to die immediately after the females gave birth.  However, the scientists forgot to mutate the genes of the female mosquitoes.  Thus, the females quit mating with the mutated mosquitoes until they died.  Then, the population of the mosquitoes returned back to normal after an initial dip in their population.  Plus, these mosquitoes became even stronger because they now became resistant to the genetic manipulation that was done.

You can read the entire report at this link.