Scientists are turning the bloodsuckers that carry the infections into allies in the global war on diseases
On election day in the USA, in November 2016, it was put to the vote on the island Key Haven in Florida andMonroe County, where the island is located, the proposal to conduct the first American experiment in which genetically modified mosquitoes will be released into the wild. [Residents of the district Confirmed the proposal, but the residents of Key Haven rejected it. However, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDAA) approved the trial. environmental organizations They announced On their intention to appeal - the editors.] After the Directorate for the Control of Mosquitoes in the Florida Islands approves the experiment, the British Society for Biotechnology will release "Oxitec” Millions of genetically modified male mosquitoes. The mutation introduced into the mosquitoes makes them dependent on antibiotics to stay alive until adulthood. These males will pass the antibiotic dependency on to their offspring in the wild, who have no access to the drug, and will therefore die young. The drop in mosquito populations as a result will reduce the risk of the spread of diseases-carrying mosquitoes such as Dengue fever, which erupted in Key Haven in 2010-2009 and curbed the The growing threat of the Zika virus.
Many in Key Haven have expressed concern that hosting genetically modified insects in their backyards is a health hazard, but outside experts have made it clear that these mosquitoes are harmless. "There is no potential [health] risk from the use of mosquitoes that have been genetically modified by the Oxitech company's method," says Thomas Miller, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside. Although this will be a first trial in the US, previous Oxitech field trials in other countries have successfully reduced local mosquito populations by more than 90% with no sign of worrisome side effects. Indeed, dozens of experiments with genetically modified mosquitoes have been conducted around the world in the last five years in an attempt to curb the spread of mosquito-related diseases.
How do the experiments with genetically modified mosquitoes work? – Detailed diagram on the Scientific American Israel website
6 תגובות
The question is how many potential spawning sites exist in an area cell.
In my opinion, even if every family makes sure to place one bucket, the effect will be negligible.
Anti-mosquito solution:
All that is required is a vessel full of water - the mosquitoes come to lay their eggs in the water - and then you pour the water before the eggs hatch. And you eliminated the next generation of mosquitoes.
It is very simple to do, you have to put containers of water outside "on the balcony" and pour the water once every three days - a week.
If many people do this, it will seriously damage the mosquito population, no need for genetic engineering or chemicals.
"Without side effects". Except bees disappear, of course. All these experiments lead to an unknown place. A food chain or pollination chain could collapse because of things like that, and then mosquitoes and exotic diseases would be the least of our problems...
This is not a non-profit association.
The goal is to sell male mosquitoes every year.
I wonder if it is possible to make only female larvae die without antibiotics, while the males will only carry the gene.
so that the effect will be continuous
When a mosquito meets a mosquito...
It is known that in the mosquito family, the male finds his food in the nectar of flowers and is not harmful to humans, while the female sucks blood from humans and animal dung so that she can produce eggs and lay them.
And here we find out, that even when it comes to a scientific website (of the American KA, and also of "Hidan"), the authors or editors are afraid to write the scientific truth (for fear of feminist women's "revenge"?) and crown their article - "The mosquitoes will save us from... The mosquitoes." And why not write explicitly, accurately and reliably, that it is actually a rescue from mosquitoes. Did a mosquito coward fall on the mosquitoes in the insect kingdom as well? I will be amazed!
And on the other hand - we read and hear quite a bit about the environmentalists and the "rights" of the creeps and insects, who "pity" the mosquitoes that suck and eat our blood, more than the man himself. True, they have an "ecological" importance (for example, in plant pollination), but is the human being, who is even considered the "crown of creation", less important and there is no need to worry about his rest or peace?