A dengue outbreak has claimed six lives this year in Panama and officials will try to control dengue by releasing transgenic mosquitoes to render infertile female transmitters of the disease.
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In Panama, it is being run by the Instituto Gorgas tropical research institute.
"The GM male mosquitoes have contact with the females that transmit dengue; then the eggs the (non-GM) females lay no longer produce (dengue-)transmitting mosquitoes," he explained.
Galvez said the GM mosquitoes are not a danger to humans because they do not feed on blood, but rather on fruit.
GM mosquitoes live for just a week, while normal ones live for a month.
The ministry plans to release the GM bugs in two weeks, numbering in the hundreds for each estimated dengue-transmitting female.
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Source-AFP