A DIDCOT company has been given special permission to step up its fight against the Zika virus, spread by mosquito bites in Brazil.

The virus has been linked with microcephaly – abnormal smallness of the head – and Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare disease of the nervous system.

Milton Park-based Oxitec uses genetic engineering to control insect pests that spread disease and damage crops. It was founded in 2002 as a spin-out from Oxford University.

On Wednesday the National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil (Anvisa) announced it would grant a special temporary registration to Oxitec to deploy its genetically-engineered male mosquito, known as Friendly Aedes aegypti, throughout the country.

Millions of the males are being released, gradually leading to the wild mosquito population decreasing because the offspring of Oxitec mosquitoes die before adulthood.

Oxitech spokesman Matthew Warren said: "The Anvisa statement is an important step towards getting commercial registration and so making this powerful and much-needed solution available for the Brazilian people."

Oxitec’s biological approach to help control the spread of Zika virus was approved by the National Technical Biosafety Commission in 2014.

In five separate trials across Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands, releases of Friendly Aedes aegypti were able to reduce the local populations of wild Aedes aegypti by more than 90 per cent in each of the targeted areas.

Academics at Oxford University have been trying to establish links between the virus and the birth defect microcephaly.

The Native Antigen Company, based at Cherwell Innovation Centre in Upper Heyford, near Bicester, has developed the world’s only available Zika virus NS1 protein from human cells.