Oxitec: Developer of biological solutions to control pests

Oxitec is the leading developer of biological solutions to control pests that transmit disease, destroy crops and harm livestock.

Aedes aegypti in California

Since first being detected in 2013 in California, invasive Aedes aegypti mosquitoes have spread to more than 20 counties throughout the state increasing the risk of transmission of dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever and other diseases.

According to the California Department of Public Health, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are now detected in the following counties and its range continues to expand:

Butte, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Merced, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Shasta, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Ventura, and Yolo.

Invasive Aedes aegypti mosquitoes pose a serious public health threat and the COVID pandemic has reinforced the need for proactive public health interventions before there is a widespread disease outbreak.

Our insects contain a self-limiting gene, and when this gene is passed on to their offspring, offspring do not survive to adulthood, resulting in a reduction in the pest insect population.

We call this method “self-limiting” because the released insects and the self-limiting gene that they pass on are designed to die and disappear from the environment.

We release males, because it is the female insects that are directly responsible for spreading disease or producing larvae that damage crops. Our males have one job: to find wild females where they live and mate with them.

This method can be applied to all kinds of insect pests, from the mosquitoes that transmit such diseases as dengue and Zika, to moth caterpillars that destroy maize fields. We’ve created our insects using precise genetic engineering tools. They are just like wild insects, except we’ve inserted two additional genes.

The self-limiting gene prevents offspring of our released male insect from surviving to adulthood, and a fluorescent marker gene produces a protein throughout the body of the insects, which glows when exposed to a specific colour of light. This helps us to track our insects in the wild.

https://www.oxitec.com/en/our-technology

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Excerpt

Australia: Mosquitos spread Japanese encephalitis

NSW Health said several more people in NSW were undergoing further testing, with more cases expected over the coming days.

The disease, which spreads to humans through mosquito bites, has infected at least 20 piggeries across the country.

Victoria's Deputy Chief Health Officer Deborah Friedman said Japanese encephalitis had now been found at piggeries in the local government areas of Loddon, Campaspe, Gannawarra, Bendigo, Shepparton and Wangaratta.

She said authorities were several weeks to months behind detecting the virus, with pigs likely first exposed between September and November.

"The reason it was detected or suspected in piggeries was because of what they refer to as reproductive losses," Dr Friedman told reporters.

"Pigs were having stillborn piglets, or what they refer to as mummified piglets, which means that they've died in utero some time before."

Dr Friedman said with pig pregnancy lasting 115 days, they had to have been infected during that time, taking exposure back to late last year.

The federal government is working closely with states and territories to support the distribution of vaccine doses to at-risk population groups.

Vaccination is recommended for people who work with or around pigs, including transport workers, vets and those who cull or hunt the animals.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the virus was spreading due to climate change, following heavy rain and devastating floods in NSW and Queensland.

"Clearly with so much climate change-induced weather pattern change, we're now seeing it move around all of the states," he said.

"Whilst only about one per cent of cases display symptoms, and only a very small number of those display extreme symptoms requiring hospitalisation, it is nonetheless a nasty disease."

https://www.mandurahmail.com.au/story/7651045/nsw-man-dies-with-japanese-encephalitis/