Various states across the country have reported an increase in mosquito-borne viruses, some of the viruses are reportedly rare and have little history of being in the United States.

In Georgia, mosquitoes tested positive for a rare disease that has the potential to be deadly.

In the Midwest, cases of the Jamestown Canyon Virus, carried by mosquitoes, are on the rise.

A mosquito-borne virus that can be lethal to pets is reportedly on the rise across the country.

West Nile Virus is also in the rise across southern states such as Louisiana.

While some are attributing the rise in mosquito-borne viruses to the particularly hot summer this year, it is also worth nothing that last year, a Bill Gates tech startup called Oxitec released millions of genetically modified mosquitos in to the wild.

USA Today Reported–

Millions of genetically altered mosquitoes that seek to ward off their natural, disease-causing counterparts may soon be released in Florida and California after the Environmental Protection Agency approved a plan to further test the modified insects.

Developed by the biotechnology company Oxitec, the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are genetically modified so that males, which do not bite, are released into the wild and mate with females, which do bite. Their offspring are either male or females that never survive to reach maturity, the company says.

Millions of the mosquitoes were released in the Florida Keys in a pilot project last year, and the EPA has authorized the extension of the project in Florida as well as the expansion into four counties in California, pending approval from the states’ regulators.

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