Genetically modified mosquitoes could prevent one million deaths

Mosquito strain that produces mostly male offspring, leaving out the females responsible for spreading the disease

Genetically modified mosquitoes could reduce the estimated one million deaths each year caused by malaria.

An international team of scientists has developed a mosquito strain that produces mostly male offspring, leaving out the females responsible for spreading the disease.

The new strain produces more than 95 per cent males and causes a collapse in numbers because there are too few females.

A team of UK, Italian and US researchers describes this "synthetic sex distortion system" in a paper published yesterday in the journal Nature Communications.

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Dick Ahlstrom

Dick Ahlstrom

Dick Ahlstrom, a contributor to The Irish Times, is the newspaper's former Science Editor.