Kenya to fight malaria fever with GM  mosquitoes

 

KENYA – The Government of Kenya has outlined measures it hopes to use to eliminate mosquitoes which are responsible for the spread of malaria fever which is responsible for major deaths in Africa.

Under the arrangement, the Kenyan Medical Research Institute, KEMRI will work with the Imperial College London, ICL to introduce a special breed of mosquitoes, genetically modified mosquitoes to fight the scourge of malaria.

According to the Kenyan centre, the genetically modified mosquitoes are being produced in a laboratory with two types of genes, a self limiting gene and fluorescence marker gene.

The self-limiting gene prevents the mosquitoes from growing into adulthood while the fluorescent marker that glows allows researchers to identify the GM mosquitoes in the wild.

The mosquito control professionals will then release genetically modified mosquitoe eggs into a designated spot.

When the eggs hatch, they develop into mosquitoes, which go ahead to mate with wild female mosquitoes and pass on the gene to their offspring and over the years reduce the number of mosquitoes in the wild.

Already,  the genetically modified mosquitoes are said to have shown efficiency in the laboratory only waiting to be introduced into the wild.