Genetically modified mosquitoes

[UML]

Should they be introduced?

Your views

[sliderz1]

to do what exactly?

[toyota2nr]

my question is why can't we create that down here for ourselves?

[skylinechild]

hmmm...suspect thread looks suspect....it IS friday...hmmm

[VexXx Dogg]

We need genetically modified politicians

[Trini Hookah]

Sigh.

[88sins]

they're already here
modified to look like humans






Trini's know them as UNC politicians

[streetbeastINC.]

So fed up of hair brain ideas ....... the ppl with the answers will never get an ear, because we are not politically correct...

[UML]

To kill the AE mosquito to eliminate yellow fever, dengue fever and chikV

[redmanjp]

saw an article in d papers about it being introduced in T&T- can't remember which paper

[fouljuice]

To kill the AE mosquito to eliminate yellow fever, dengue fever and chikV

But wha disease they giving we in return?

[hyperdude]

To kill the AE mosquito to eliminate yellow fever, dengue fever and chikV

But wha disease they giving we in return?

lol
H.I.V.

[UML]

Kinda pricey. I doh think any because the offspring die at the larval stage.

[kamakazi]

You know what happens when you mess with nature. ..
Let's look at GM corn; you plant it, it grows but you will not get any corn from planting the grains from this plant. When insects cross pollinate this with natural corn it also significantly lowers the yield to near non existent.

Mosquitoes are pests; but they are part of a food chain for some other animal; birds.... fish....and killing of a food source might kill off a species. This species might be responsible for controlling some other pest. ...like grasshoppers.... and you start down this slippery slope

I would like less mosquito bites but messing with nature is never a good answer. Might work short term but the potential long term effect can be catastrophic

[UML]

Fuad to look at GM mosquitoes to fight dengue


Shaliza Hassanali
Published:
Sunday, August 14, 2011

Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan
A genetically modified (GM) male mosquito which is successfully being used in countries abroad in the fight against dengue fever that affects up to 100 million people worldwide, could be on the cards for T&T. Admitting last Wednesday that there were 1,639 suspected cases of dengue fever up to July 30, 2011, and one confirmed death, Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan said if the pilot studies of the GM mosquitoes have been proven successful in other countries, he saw no problem with “it being introduced here.” Khan said he would have his ministry investigate the GM mosquito, which was developed by British biotechnology company Oxitec, but could not say within what time frame it was likely to be introduced in T&T.

“We would first have to look at it.” The GM mosquito carries an artificial fragment of DNA designed to cause wild females with whom they mate to produce offspring that die at the pupa stage. This significantly reduces the spread of dengue and its native population below the numbers required to sustain dengue fever, transmitted through the bites of females. There is no vaccine or effective drug to treat dengue fever, which is a growing problem.

Combating dengue with test trials
Oxitec first commenced the Cayman trials in September 2009. Together with the islands’ Mosquito Research and Control Unit, the company liberated 3.3 million sterile aedes aegypti mosquitoes into a region spanning 16 hectares. This exercise decreased the country’s mosquito population by 80 per cent. Also, near the town of Bentong in Malaysia, a field experiment was conducted, releasing 6,000 mosquitoes into an uninhabited forest to monitor its dispersal between December, 2010 and January, 2011.

Malaysia had reported a 52 per cent increase in dengue-related deaths over the past 20 years. Total infections rose 11 per cent from 2009 to 50,000 cases last year, including 134 deaths. With its growing cases, Malaysia’s government conducted an independent review of these semi-field trials and recommended that the project proceed to the next step once it passed regulatory and ethical clearances. In January, South-east Asia, as part of an ambitious attempt to combat dengue fever, also undertook a test run of development.

Mosquito eggs in demand
As Oxitec moves closer to commercial sales, additional capacity is under construction to prepare for the next phase in mass rearing its engineered sterile mosquitoes. With additional field trials already under way in Malaysia and Brazil, Oxitec is preparing to meet demands of between ten and 20 million mosquito eggs per week. In the short to medium term, this increased capacity will meet demand not only from trials but also from initial commercial sales in other territories.

Oxitec’s next phase will focus on regional hubs. According to a March, 2009 World Health Organisation (WHO) bulletin on the Web site www.scielosp.org, it stated that there are approximately 25,000 dengue fatalities each year and severe cases require hospitalisation. A study conducted by the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, aedes mosquito-borne disease, primarily dengue fever, costs India a hefty US$1.3 billion every year, 95 per cent of that due to illness.

An expensive disease
WHO described dengue as an extremely expensive disease, estimated to cost the global economy over $5 billion per year. Though Oxitec has been breaking new ground in mosquito research, few believe they represent a silver bullet against mosquito-borne diseases. Concerns were expressed by environmental groups such as Ottawa-based ETC Group and EcoNexus of Oxford, of Oxitec releasing an entirely new strain of organism into the environment since this might not only create an empty niche which also affects organisms higher in the food chain that rely on mosquitoes as a dietary source.

Luke Alphey, founder and research director of Oxitec, who described progress towards the first field trials of GM mosquitoes said, “If the funds are made available, I can see the elimination of dengue from regions or groups of countries using GM technology integrated with other tools.”
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2011/08/ ... ght-dengue

[ruffneck_12]

as long as dey seedless I good

[Trini Hookah]

You know what happens when you mess with nature. ..
Let's look at GM corn; you plant it, it grows but you will not get any corn from planting the grains from this plant. When insects cross pollinate this with natural corn it also significantly lowers the yield to near non existent.

Mosquitoes are pests; but they are part of a food chain for some other animal; birds.... fish....and killing of a food source might kill off a species. This species might be responsible for controlling some other pest. ...like grasshoppers.... and you start down this slippery slope

I would like less mosquito bites but messing with nature is never a good answer. Might work short term but the potential long term effect can be catastrophic

You forgot frogs buddy.

[kamakazi]

Didn't forget. .. was just an example

[joker]

Aerial spraying back in the day worked but fuad is a dunce

[shotta 20]

For that set of millions $$, bess they provide free mosquito zappers for the whole country instead.

[TriP]

Bop...

[Joshie23]

For that set of millions $$, bess they provide free mosquito zappers for the whole country instead.

This. Someone promote this man now.

[UML]

For that set of millions $$, bess they provide free mosquito zappers for the whole country instead.

What is the price of a life?

Think of the savings from this investment: no more deaths, no mosquito borne diseases, more hospital beds available, less medication to buy, less strain on the health system, shorter waiting times at the hospital, etc.

[src1983]

This would make Mosquitos extinct

[meccalli]

K, so we're bringing mosquitoes who can't reproduce since their offspring die, reduce local populations all the while providing a food source for all the organisms that depend on them? We gnna ship in a new batch when an area runs out for insects and bats? And what happens if a new strain of a aegypti develops that allows mosquitoes to produce viable offspring without needing fertilisation or is unaffected?
Either way, oxitec developed this for hotspot areas where there are deadly outbreaks and poor healthcare unable to deal with it. When last somebody died from dengue, every week, month, year? We can't deal with those cases? Tons of people getting chikungunya and beating it. Spraying also kills more natural vector control than mosquitoes itself..but of course bat is blight....

[pugboy]

either way we need to do something
I got chik over month and half and still have serious pains in fingers, ankles

[racedriverpro]

either way we need to do something
I got chik over month and half and still have serious pains in fingers, ankles

Seems like u have more than chik v.

[eliteauto]

either way we need to do something
I got chik over month and half and still have serious pains in fingers, ankles

Seems like u have more than chik v.

nope, the joint pain lasts months after the other symptoms are gone

[crazychinee]

I know trinituner is filled of so many scientists..

Google Prof Dave Chadee.

[toyota2nr]

Anyone ever saw the movie Mimic? This situation reminds me of that.