Tag: Dr William Petrie
Success of GM mozzie project queried by MRCU
(CNS): Government has cancelled a planned national roll-out of the controversial genetically modified mosquito project by the UK-based firm Oxitec. Nancy Barnard, the acting director of the Mosquito Research and Control Unit, told CNS that the decision not to expand the experimental method for suppressing the Aedes aegypti was due to budget cuts. However, it appears […]
Cayman loses mozzie guru to Miami
(CNS): After more than three decades battling pesky mosquitoes in Cayman, Dr Bill Petrie, the director of the Mosquito Control and Research Unit (MRCU), is leaving the island to head up the Miami-Dade Mosquito Control Division in Florida. Petrie has worked at MRCU since 1984, when he joined as a research assistant after graduating from Dundee […]
MRCU plans to expand GM mozzie project
(CNS): Following the near year-long trial in West Bay, where genetically modified mosquitoes were released to reduce the population of Aedes aegypti, the MRCU is planning to expand the programme. The project has proved controversial but interim results show a decline of 79% in the pest. Now the modified mosquitoes could be released across the […]
GM project cuts mozzies by over 80%
(CNS): There has been a dramatic fall in the number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in West Bay, where genetically modified bugs have been released in a pilot project to get as near as possible to eradicating the disease-spreading pest. Over the last six months the MRCU, in partnership with a private UK bio-technology firm, has […]
Pregnant woman infected by Zika in GT
(CNS): A pregnant woman who lives in the Swamp area of George Town has been infected with the Zika virus, public health officials said. The first confirmed case of a pregnant woman contracting the mosquito-transmitted virus was revealed at a public information meeting in the capital Tuesday evening, when Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel […]
GM mosquito offspring begin to appear in field test
(CNS): The release of hundreds of thousands of genetically modified male mosquitoes is beginning to make its mark on the population of the Aedes aegypti species in the district of West Bay, officials managing the project said after the genetic markers began showing up in insect larvae. Dr Renaud Lacroix, the manager of the Oxitec […]
MRCU on full scale Zika attack
(CNS): The Mosquito Research and Control Unit is carrying out a full-scale attack on the Aedes aegypti in an effort to keep the numbers of the disease-carrying mosquito down and contain the current Zika threat. Dr Bill Petrie, the unit’s director, said there had been an “unprecedented number of requests” for yard spraying, especially in […]
Two more cases of Zika reported in capital
(CNS): Public health officials have confirmed that they have received two more positive Zika virus tests on blood taken from patients in George Town with no travel history. Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez said that since Wednesday 17 August, ten additional results have come in from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), with two being positive. There are […]
Third Zika case transmitted in George Town
(CNS): A George Town woman has become the third patient to test positive for Zika who does not have a travel history to a country where there has been an outbreak of the virus. Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez said that several more patients have been tested for the virus and another […]
20,000 GM mosquitoes released in WB
(CNS): The Mosquito Research and Control Unit wasted no time Thursday morning with the controversial release of genetically modified Aedes aegypti. The planned release was put on hold for two weeks by the court during a judicial review, but after the stay was lifted Tuesday, some 20,000 of the bio-engineered mosquitoes were loose in West […]
Stay lifted paving way for GM mosquito release
(CNS): The Mosquito Research and Control Unit has been given the greenlight by the court to begin the controversial release of the genetically modified bio-engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes after Justice Ingrid Mangatal lifted the stay on the project. Kerrie Cox, the lawyer representing the local activists trying to halt the project until an independent risk […]
