
Genetically modified mosquitoes used to fight dengue, zika in Brazil - apsec112
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2016/01/27/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-used-to-fight-dengue-zika-in-brazil/
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brianbreslin
There was a relevant article in 2010 about the concept of eradicating ALL
mosquitoes. The author of the study surmised you could do so with minimal
ecological impact.

[http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html](http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html)

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Confiks
So how are they breeding these "800,000 genetically modified Aedes aegypti
mosquitoes per week" if they by design cannot produce offspring? Through a
virus?

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pja
The mosquitoes are genetically altered to need a particular chemical in order
for their offspring to be non-sterile. (Tetracycline IIRC) Without
tetracycline in their food, any offspring the have will be sterile. (I’m
afraid I don’t know the details of how this works genetically, but there are
probably papers in the literature.)

So the company can happily breed their mosquitoes to keep a stock, feeding
them on feedstock that contains tetracycline & then can take a portion of the
breeding stock & eliminate tetracycline from their diet - their sterile male
offspring can then be released into the wild to mate with fertile wild female
mosquitoes.

I’ve heard that one of their client labs had trouble generating sterile males
using Oxitec’s protocol: they eventually discovered that the feedstock they
were using came from factory farmed chickens which had large amounts of
tetracycline in their diet (as an antibiotic it’s used to boost growth rates
in factory farmed animals).

(A neighbour works for them, so if anyone has any really pressing questions I
can probably ask :) )

Edit: There’s a review paper which looks like it might answer some of your
technical questions here: [http://longnow.org/revive/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/Alphey-...](http://longnow.org/revive/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/Alphey-AnnRevEnt-2014-genetic-control-of-mosquitoes-
copy.pdf)

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ucaetano
"The mosquitoes are genetically altered to need a particular chemical in order
for their offspring to be non-sterile."

Life, uh, finds a way.

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searine
>Life, uh, finds a way.

But what is the failure scenario? Mosquitos in the wild? There are already
mosquitos in the wild, and they are infected with zika and dengue.

Worst case scenario is better than the status quo.

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ucaetano
Sorry, that was a popular culture reference.

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tshannon
You were so concerned with with whether or not you could make a pop culture
reference, you didn't stop to think if you should.

~~~
ucaetano
Wow, I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition!

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rgejman
I think it's only a matter of time before someone decides to release a gene-
drive mosquito into the wild:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive)

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mih
Complete eradication of mosquitoes would be counter productive, especially
given that mosquitoes are a major reason some places such as tropical forests
have low human activity -
[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35408835](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35408835).
Selectively countering the harmful traits of mosquitoes appears to be the best
way to go about it.

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rgejman
Gene drives do not have to be used to eradicate mosquitos (although they can
be used that way). They can be used to spread malaria resistance genes to
mosquitoes, thereby rendering mosquito populations immune to malaria
infection.

[http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1521077112](http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1521077112)

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andrewclunn
The only issue I see is that this treatment (by its nature) cannot be self
sustaining. Then again, from a business perspective, that's probably a plus.

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blisterpeanuts
Yes, as long as even a tiny breeding population survives, this pest will come
back. It's probably going to take an annual treatment to keep it under
control, at least until such time as we find a permanent solution to rid the
world of blood sucking parasites, like blast the surface with a nuclear
holocaust, then selectively reseed the planet with only desirable species.

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marcosdumay
If it lasts for long enough that people stops spreading poisons around to kill
the mosquito and let predators grow in number, that'll be already a gain.

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adajos
It would be nice to have _something_ in our arsenal against dengue fever. I
will be interested to see how effective this is.

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andygates
Dengue vaccines are in last-stage trials and early deployment.

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adajos
Thanks, I had no idea!

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espinchi
I'm sure there's a movie or two that start with a similar headline...

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leojg
It seems that Brazil likes a lot to modify insects, they did it too with the
Africanized bees:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee)

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bikamonki
This is how the zombie apocalypse begins...

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larakerns
Powerful new viruses will continue to birth as the Earth warms. A zombie
apocalypse might occur regardless of human intervention at this stage.

