evidence: Mosquitoes can transmit several deadly infectious diseases. The U.S.-owned biotechnology company Oxitec released genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida as part of a strategy to reduce the population of Aedes mosquitoes responsible for diseases like dengue and West Nile fever. However, these mosquitoes cannot transmit malaria because the parasite that causes malaria is only borne by Anopheles, a different genus of mosquito.