TALLAHASSEE — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said Thursday he'd support the use of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys to help stop the spread of the Zika virus.
"I think this is going to be such a crisis that we've got to move ahead with it, certainly the pilot study," Nelson told reporters during a stop at Tallahassee International Airport.
[and. . .]
Oxitec, a British company, wants to release about 3 million genetically modified mosquitoes in the Keys as part of the first-ever trial in the U.S. of such engineering. The genetic change is intended to produce offspring that die young and can't reproduce.
"It's not like taking a gene out of something and replacing it in the genetic makeup of something else," Nelson said. "This is altering a gene in the genetic makeup of the (Aedes) aegypti mosquito to turn off that mosquito's ability to reproduce. You have to meet a crisis head-on. And if this is what it takes to eliminate that strain of mosquito, then that is what we're going to have to do." [emphasis added]
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yhHyCn84ZIQ/WezjlEL-0tI/AAAAAAAAPZ4/CzkhriK6zpEJJ3d9Je1495d49gIhnMlxACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
