Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

[ArmyDaveNY]

This is an interesting article about genetically modifying mosquitoes so that those that are malaria carrying will be eliminated from the world. I recall that just recently, there is a test release of these in a part of Florida. What do you think?

https://nypost.com/2021/07/29/geneti...ng-mosquitoes/

[boatman61]

I believe something like this this was tried in Africa in the late 1970's, it was considered by some to be the source of HIV..

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I believe something like this this was tried in Africa in the late 1970's, it was considered by some to be the source of HIV..

Interesting. I haven't heard that before. It is time to look it up!

In the Florida Keys this past May they started an experiment to control aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which carry Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. In Florida the methodology is different since it kills larvae whereas the malaria carrying mosquitoes in the article above are sterilized. According to WebMD, the aedes aegypti mosquito represents around 4% of all mosquitoes yet accounts for almost all illnesses from mosquitoes. I couldn't find any initial results although this is not the first use of genetically modified mosquitoes, with some experiments in the wild going back to at least 2019.

One benefit is the elimination to insecticides.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01186-6

[Chotu]

This was brought up before and all I could think of was the Gypsy moth caterpillar

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Chotu

This was brought up before and all I could think of was the Gypsy moth caterpillar

Are you referring to the modified Chestnut trees and their effects on the Gypsy Moth?

If that is what you are thinking of, I found this article, and at the end there are a number of related studies on the same subject. It is an interesting read.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31339228/

[Chotu]

No. That the scourge of the Gypsy moth caterpillar was brought on by genetic cross breeding. Basically created like by people.

That there are a lot of unintended consequences.

Killer bees too.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Chotu

No. That the scourge of the Gypsy moth caterpillar was brought on by genetic cross breeding. Basically created like by people.

That there are a lot of unintended consequences.

Killer bees too.

Aha. I had not heard that about the Gypsy Moth. Time for me to read some more!

I was under the impression that the killer bees were a result of cross breeding and not genetic modification. Regardless of the method, I am always concerned when we mess with nature.

Your comment about unintended consequences reminds me of that line from Jurassic Park; Life finds a way!

[Sun and Moon]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I believe something like this this was tried in Africa in the late 1970's, it was considered by some to be the source of HIV..

No, FauciKevorkian invented HIV. It was his first bioweapon.

[jimbunyard]

Seems a perfect place to emerge from 'timeout'...

Better to fight mosquitoes with traditional physical, non-insecticidal methods; nets, drainage etc. Perhaps a 'forced extinction' can be carried out, but the potential for trophic cascades, as well as the likelyhood of different mosquito species 'taking up the slack' seems to make this just another at-best temporary solution.

As for such meddling 'being the source' of HIV, it's been fairly conclusively proved that the origin was from a mutation of a chimp variant of SIV, which likely 'crossed over' in the 1930's. The earliest human blood sample containing HIV is dated to 1959, well before any 'gene modification' procedures (save for those made via artificial selection) even existed.

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/...4/9/810/252969

Not to mention that HIV isn't transmitted by mosquitoes.

https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog..._transmit_hiv/


Regarding the invasive European gypsy moth, that was a classic example of an ignorant amatuer making a big mistake, not a cross-breeding experiment gone wrong. The moths that escaped were not cross bred, and as far as my rather cursory look could determine, probably couldn't cross-breed.

Nonetheless, a good example of "don't mess with Mother Nature"

[chrisr]

i know the mossie is widely regarded as the most dangerous creature in the world (# 2 is us), but everything has it's place in the matrix - even if we don't know what it is yet

imho we should know what we are doing before we do it...not find out afterwards

cheers,

[RaymondR]

Before they put a world wide ban on it's manufacture DDT was one of the most effective agents in the war against the mozzie. In a number of places where malaria had almost been eradicated it was able to make a comeback.

I suspect the mozzie would suffer the same fate as the ancient Assyrians - no man will mourn their passing.

[jimbunyard]

As usual, a myopically oversimplified static assessment of a highly complex dynamic problem.

Guess what the result of that will be...


An exerpt from an article in the JMVH (Journal of Military and Veterans Health) of the Australasian Military Medicine Association.

My emphasis added.


"DDT is neither a panacea nor a super villain. In many places DDT failed to eradicate malaria not because of environmentalist restrictions on its use but because it simply stopped working. Carson showed that insects have a phenomenal capacity to adapt to new poisons; anything that kills a large proportion of a population ends up changing the insects’ genetic composition so as to favour those few individuals that manage to survive due to random mutation. In the continued presence of the insecticide, susceptible populations can be rapidly replaced by resistant ones."


In fact, if I remember correctly, DDT resistance and the subsequent decline in effectivness against malarial mosquitoes was noted even before its use became widespread.


"By 1972, when the DDT controls went into effect in the United States, nineteen species of mosquitoes capable of transmitting malaria, including some in Africa, were resistant to DDT. Genes for DDT resistance can persist in populations for decades. Spraying DDT on the interior walls of houses led to the evolution of resistance half a century ago. In fact, pockets of resistance to DDT in some mosquito species in Africa are already well documented. There are strains of mosquitoes that can metabolize DDT into harmless by-products and other mosquitoes have evolved whose nervous systems are immune to DDT. There are even mosquitoes that avoid the toxic effects of DDT by resting between meals not on the interior walls of houses, where chemicals are sprayed, but on the exterior walls, where they don’t encounter the chemical at all."

Read the full article here https://jmvh.org/article/ddt-and-sil...y-years-after/


And one further example of the deadly trophic cascades resulting from the
uninformed usage of such volatile agents. (kinda reminds me of releasing Zuckerburg Gates and Bezos into the environment...)


"For instance, an experiment conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Entomology on May 23, 1945, was reported not only in scientific journals but also in general-circulation magazines. At the rate of five pounds per acre an oil solution of DDT was sprayed over a gypsy-moth-infsted 1,200-acre oak forest near Moscow, Pennsylvania. It was terrifyingly effective. Every gypsymoth caterpillar in the forest died within hours. But so did every bird—at least 4,000 of them within eight days. Nor was this the limit of DDT’s mischief. Annihilation of ladybug beetles by the spraying resulted in a tremendous multiplication of aphids, which are not affected by DDT but are naturally controlled by ladybugs. The forest was on the way to being completely defoliated when rains halted the outbreak; aphids are shortlived in wet weather."

https://www.americanheritage.com/dea...-history-ddt#2



And, despite the "worldwide ban on its manufacture", DDT is still used (and thus manufactured) fairly openly in some countries, and as an emergency measure to control various outbreaks worldwide.

[RaymondR]

Hi jimbunyard,

Two of the things which are required for a disease to be endemic in a human population - a vector and a reservoir of the active agency in the human population.

Most western countries were able to suppress by controlling the vector ie the mosquito and much of the suppression in village societies was managed by utilizing DDT dust in the housing in the village.

However, Rachel Carson alerted western societies of the harmful results of DDT use in agriculture in her book Silent Spring and a movement to have the harmful practice discontinued eventuated. Unfortunately the zealots in this movement were able to bring about the world wide ban and there were resurgences in the prevalence of the disease in places where it was being successfully suppressed.

Hopefully a vaccine against the disease will be developed and suppression by removing the reservoirs can be achieved world wide.