Oxitec Receives Approval for US Trials
10th October 2006
In April Oxitec announced that the US Department of Agriculture Biotechnology Regulatory Service has granted a permit for the release of sterile, genetically marked pink bollworm in up to 120 acres of commercial cotton in Arizona in the summer of 2007.
USDA researchers associated with the existing sterile insect control programme will evaluate the performance of a strain modified with a heritable marker and irradiated at a lower dose than the standard of 20 KR. The modified moths are expected to be more competitive because of the reduction in radiation damage and easier to monitor accurately with the addition of the in-built marker. The experimental strain was developed in collaboration with Oxitec Ltd using Oxitec technology. The modified moths will be produced at a rate of around 400,000 per week at the USDA rearing facility in Phoenix.
Oxitec Ltd
Oxitec Ltd. is developing effective and environment-friendly techniques to control insect pests that are important to agriculture and public health. The company’s technology, which is based on advances in molecular biology and genetics at Oxford University and builds on well-established sterile insect techniques, is fully compatible with integrated pest management. .
Oxitec was founded in 2002 and is privately funded. It has grown in size to 25 staff, and is located in state-of-the-art facilities at Milton Park near Oxford. Oxitec’s work was recognised in 2005 with an award of $5 million to address control of Dengue fever from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative.
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