Science Takes a Fresh Swat at Zika

Until there’s a vaccine or treatment for the Zika virus, the quickest way to control its spread is to attack the mosquitoes that carry it. Biotech companies and governments are wielding their best weapons, all of which involve breeding the bloodsuckers in labs and applying treatments that render them unable to reproduce or spread viruses, then releasing them into the wild.

In Brazil, Oxitec says it expects approval within weeks to sell the government a bioengineered mosquito incapable of having offspring. If there are enough sterile mosquitoes in the mating pool, fewer new ones will be born. Oxitec, a British subsidiary of U.S. biotech company Intrexon, has conducted trials in South America since 2009 and already has a facility in Brazil that can breed 2 million genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in a week. “We’re very much operational,” says Chief Executive Officer Hadyn Parry.