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LookieNoNookie -> RE: The Mosquito Solution Can genetic modification eliminate a deadly tropical disease? (7/19/2012 2:59:29 PM)
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ORIGINAL: kalikshama
Pretty cool science but who will regulate it and how?
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/07/09/120709fa_fact_specter
ABSTRACT: ANNALS OF SCIENCE about genetically-modified mosquitoes and the dengue virus. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are among the deadliest creatures on earth. Before a vaccine was discovered in the nineteen-thirties, the mosquito transmitted the yellow-fever virus to millions of people with devastating efficiency. The mosquito also carries dengue, one of the most rapidly spreading viral diseases in the world.
According to the World Health Organization, dengue infects at least fifty million people a year. More than half a million people become seriously ill from the disease. There is no vaccine or cure for dengue, or even a useful treatment. Now a British biotechnology company called Oxitec has developed a method to modify the genetic structure of the male Aedes mosquito, essentially transforming it into a mutant capable of destroying its own species.
Oxitec, which is short for Oxford Insect Technologies, has essentially transformed the insect-research facility Moscamed, in the Brazilian city of Juazeiro, into an entomological assembly line. In one tightly controlled space, mosquitoes are hatched, nurtured, fed a combination of goat’s blood and fish food, and bred. Lab technicians then destroy the females they have created and release the males into the wild. Eggs fertilized by those genetically modified males will hatch normally, but soon after, and well before the new mosquitoes can fly, the fatal genes prevail, killing them all. The goal is both simple and audacious: to overwhelm the native population of Aedes aegypti and wipe them out, along with the diseases they carry.
The engineered mosquitoes, officially known as OX513A, lead a brief but privileged life. The entire process, from creation to destruction, takes less than two weeks. Mentions Andrew McKemey. The field trial, which began a year ago, is a collaboration between Moscamed, Oxitec, and the University of São Paulo. Preliminary results have been impressive: the group recently collected a sample of eggs in two neighborhoods where the engineered mosquitoes had been released, and found that eighty-five per cent of them were genetically modified.
Despite the experiment’s scientific promise, many people regard the tiny insect as a harbinger of a world where animals are built by nameless scientists, nurtured in beakers, then set loose—with consequences, no matter how noble the intention, that are impossible to anticipate or control. Mentions Luke Alphey.
In 2009, Key West, Florida, suffered its first dengue outbreak in seventy-three years. Michael S. Doyle, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District’s executive director, invited Oxitec’s founder, Luke Alphey, and its chief executive, Hadyn Parry, to explain their approach at a town meeting. Opponents mobilized within hours of receiving notice of the meeting. The biggest question raised by the creation of OX513A is who will regulate it and how.
To the consternation of many, Oxitec recently applied to the F.D.A. for approval of its mosquito. In Key West, the town meeting with the Oxitec scientists and Doyle quickly became emotional, and, at times, rancorous. Oxitec was portrayed as an international conglomerate willing to “play God” and endanger an American paradise. The worry about theoretical risk tends to overwhelm any discussion of possible benefits. “But to get rid of the virus, we have to get rid of the mosquitoes,” stated Aldo Malavasi, the director of Moscamed.
Don't remember exactly when her reign was but, in Washington State we had a woman Governor (late 70's or so, early 80's), brilliant woman (Dixie Lee Ray), Ph. D., all kinds of brilliance, smarter than skaditch....and she was reviewing the (then) new federal wetlands rules and regs.
New federal laws said we had to create wetlands (1/2 acre for every 5 developed)...save the whales and all.
She commented to the Washington State legislature....
"Why is it that we spent 70 million dollars a year nationwide, from 1950 - 1965 to eradicate Malaria (mosquito's/breeding grounds/DHT) and now we're spending 120 million dollars a year in OUR state building places where mosquito's can breed?"
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