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West African Village Weighs Using Genetically Modified Mosquitoes In Malaria Fight (scientificamerican.com)
New submitter omaha393 writes: A public engagement campaign is underway in the hopes of convincing Burkina Faso residents to allow the release of genetically modified mosquitoes to combat deadly mosquito-borne pathogens. GM mosquitoes rely on a technology called "gene drives." Different gene drives offer different solutions, typically leading to subsequent broods being sterile, predominantly male, resistant to infection or nonviable due to toxic traits. Researchers in this case are only in the preliminary stages of releasing sterile males but hope to begin wider releases of GM mosquitoes in about 6 years.
Burkina Faso is not the only country to pursue GM mosquitoes in efforts to prevent disease. Brazil has become a testing ground for wide release, and last fall voters in Florida Keys approved measures to begin releasing GM mosquitoes to fight the spread of Zika. Both the WHO and the U.S. FDA have approved the technique, but skeptics are critical of the method.
Burkina Faso is not the only country to pursue GM mosquitoes in efforts to prevent disease. Brazil has become a testing ground for wide release, and last fall voters in Florida Keys approved measures to begin releasing GM mosquitoes to fight the spread of Zika. Both the WHO and the U.S. FDA have approved the technique, but skeptics are critical of the method.
Still waiting for these beauties to start being mass produced, looks like they're making progress.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
For anyone who has *not* been following crispr/gene drives over the last couple years, RL has a really good overview(podcast) of it.
http://www.radiolab.org/story/...
I'm not into genetics at all, but this is a REALLY interesting story.
Who is going to import a GMO crop for any real currency?
The product that has value needs a nice GMO free logo and can meet other standards to get importers interested.
Once a brand finds organic certified, GMO free, local farmers can work out some nice export deals or just ensure access to different export markets.
As a framer or as a local coop, GMO free has some global export value.
Without been GMO free a product only has national value or limited export to some nations who may not pay much as a food product.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The history of introducing a non-native predator species to control the population of a pest has been full of unpleasant surprises. Now this is different, but what if birds don't like to feed on the GMO mosquitoes, or fish don't like their larvae? The scientists will sit back in their air-conditioned offices and say, well I guess we were wrong about that but at least we advanced science by performing this experiment.
But then later there's running and screaming.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
You'd think they would use a standard unit of measurement, like the kilogram, rather than genetically modified mosquitos.
like...get this...super-mosquitoes and Kristen Stewart.
Sounds like a good prologue for a catastrophe movie.
Fade in.
"The year was 2017. A team of scientists released a genetically modified mosquito to fight malaria. It was a mistake. A terrible mistake."
Fade out.
lucm, indeed.
"Burkina Faso is not the only country to pursue GM mosquitoes in efforts to prevent disease. Brazil has become a testing ground for wide release...
Somebody with a perverse sense of humour might note that killer bees originated in (cough) Brazil.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I think your underestimating how much suffering malaria causes. Malaria is nasty stuff. It's super painful , leaves you completely unable to get out of bed , you run huge fevers , and because the body can't really mount an antigen defence against it , you'll get it over and over and over again. The end result is it paralyses entire regions by making huge portions of the workforce perpetually sick and this has contributed hugely to Africa's economic misfortunes. A society where almost everyone of age can work is a society where people can work their way out of poverty and that means cleaner water , better tended environments and cheaper government
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Then I suggest you learn English properly.
Weighs can also mean considers the importance of different parts of a decision.. IE. Weighs the factors in a decision.
As it clearly does here smart arse.
More importantly.. Perhaps someone should tell them actual tests of these modified mosquitoes have failed, as not surprisingly it turns out that the changes mutate out again very quickly as survival is actually dominant.
Who would have thought.
Yet your grammar is atrocious. I suggest you learn English, properly.
What's really needed is an additional modification that would make the following generation fail to hatch. Yes, I realize the males are "sterile" but I also realize that a mutation could occur in their lab and then they would be releasing one that isn't sterile but would have many more males. I do not know the ecological fallout of such a possibility and I'm willing to be they don't know either. Nature is unforgiving and we already have a lot to make up for.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
And politicians and lawyers.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Bed bugs and cockroaches were already mentioned!
Once upon a time there used to be an inexpensive effective way to control mosquitoes, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. As long as it was sprayed in limited areas where there are concentrations of mosquitoes, it was pretty safe. I'm not advocating using it from crop dusting aircraft to cover huge areas. Rachel Carlson is personally responsible for the pain, suffering and death of huge numbers of people through the ban.
I know this will probably bring up a few replies about bird egg shell thinning, but I'm writing about allowing LIMITED use of DDT in areas of mosquito populations to prevent the death of 400,000 people (per webmd.com) per year.
Bad news, AC: I've already passed my genes to the next generation.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
According to the headline: "West African Village Weighs Using Genetically Modified Mosquitoes..."
According to Wikipedia: "In 2014 its population was estimated at just over 17.3 million." That's a mighty big village! Actually Burkina Faso is a country. Very few villages could afford such a program and it would be pointless when it was surrounded by other villages who prefer regular mosquitos. Don't know why the headlines here so often mislead the readers and continue to add caps to every word- just like in good old 1856 when headlines sold papers.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Honestly I'm cautiously optimistic about GM stuff in general, though I think gene patents should be abolished to weaken the more reckless influences of the profit motive. If you can engineer important nutrient production into a staple crop, or selectively graft in specific traits from wild relatives to make your crops able to survive an extra three weeks of flooding, or months without water like a resurrection plant, it seems like it might be irresponsible *not* to do so. Just make sure it's subjected to thorough independent testing against unintended consequences.
Gene Drives though are in a whole different terrifying league. That's no longer just a modified organism, that's an organism with advanced bacterial DNA-editing tools grafted into it. We've only just recently stolen powerful cutting-edge gene editing tools from bacteria, the potential implications of which we're only beginning to imagine, and are now talking about installing them into complex organisms where they will tend to spread throughout the entire species - a decision that can never be undone short of extinction. All other changes could be potentially reverted, but only by releasing another Gene Drive into the population - it can remove anything except itself.
Now, if we could count on the GD only doing what it was supposed to, that would be scary enough. The lines between species are much fuzzier than we imagine, and the potential for strange interactions is vast. We might accidentally wipe out all mosquitoes and relatives, a wide family of important pollinating insects, rather than just the disease-carrying species we were aiming for. But even worse, the one constant thing in genetics is mutation - and so any gene drive that doesn't lead to the extinction of its host species will eventually mutate, and now we have a misprogrammed gene-editor spreading through the population doing who-knows-what. Or alternately, there's now some extremely powerful gene-editing tools in the organism, the product of billions of generations more evolution than anything else in its genome, and nature does seem to love to find a way to put useful genes to work.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
>> cockroaches
>No way.
Agreed. Anything that can wipe out cockroaches will doom us all.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
I've seen this sentiment here before regarding DDT, and it's mostly nonsense.
Once upon a time there used to be an inexpensive effective way to control mosquitoes, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane.
There still is, and it's still used for that purpose. In some places, though, it's not as effective as it used to be because mosquitoes were selected for resistance thanks to indiscriminate spraying.
Rachel Carlson is personally responsible for the pain, suffering and death of huge numbers of people through the ban.
The ban on DDT is a ban against wholesale agricultural spraying. It explicitly includes an exemption for disease vector control, and DDT is still used for public health mosquito control.
I'm writing about allowing LIMITED use of DDT in areas of mosquito populations to prevent the death of 400,000 people (per webmd.com) per year.
Yep, that's exactly how it's used today.
Yeah, and I've heard of some plans under development that simply make the mosquitoes immune to malaria, which at first glance seems like an eminently more ecologically responsible approach.
The gene drive itself worries me though - by it's nature we'd pretty much be permanently installing cutting-edge bacterial gene-editing tools into the entire species - a species that reproduces quickly to ensure that mutation rates are high, and by it's nature regularly injects things into the bloodstreams of humans and other species. And nature does so love to find creative ways to put useful genes to work...
Now if they just want to release immune mosquitoes engineered by other means into the population, without a gene drive, I'd be far less worried - malaria immunity might even offer a survival advantage to the mosquito so that it would spread throughout the population naturally, though far more slowly than with a gene drive.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Rachel Carlson is personally responsible for the pain, suffering and death of huge numbers of people through the ban.
Nope. You're just looking for a scapegoat.
Which says a lot about you. In reality, numerous countries, including African ones continued to use DDT with RIS. But you would rather blame an environmentalist who actually served to warn us of real problems with the effects of DDT that were developing due to its misuse.
Not to mention the development of resistance in mosquito populations which was rendering it less effective.
Oh no, you would tell us the person we should be outraged at, who didn't cause any of the actions you allege, is the one warning us.
Not even concern over lack of research into malarial medication, corruption in African countries, lack of education, lack of resources, just misguided venting.
What does that tell us about yourself?
The writer of the parent comment is more knowledgeable than the writers of the many news story I've read.
Important quotes:
Excellent: "Just make sure it's subjected to thorough independent testing against unintended consequences."
Excellent: "We've only just recently stolen powerful cutting-edge gene editing tools from bacteria, the potential implications of which we're only beginning to imagine, and are now talking about installing them into complex organisms where they will tend to spread throughout the entire species - a decision that can never be undone short of extinction."
Excellent: "The lines between species are much fuzzier than we imagine, and the potential for strange interactions is vast."
Excellent: "... the one constant thing in genetics is mutation - and so any gene drive that doesn't lead to the extinction of its host species will eventually mutate, and now we have a mis-programmed gene-editor spreading through the population..."
It still doesn't make much sense, I mean, which village is meant, and since when are villages allowed to make such decisions.
Indeed. It seems absurd that this decision is left up to "villagers". It seems like scientists and political leaders should be making these decisions. And maybe it should be tested first on an isolated island rather than where it could spread unimpeded across Africa and Eurasia.
Hawaii would be a good first test, since it is isolated in the middle of the Pacific, and mosquitoes aren't native to Hawaii in the first place, so there is no negative ecological effects in exterminating them.
On one hand yay potentially end suffering on the other increase population
This is nonsense. Better health does NOT lead to increased population growth. I leads to a decrease. As parents are more assured that their children will survive and be healthy, they invest greater resources into each child's nutrition and education, and have fewer children. This has happened repeatedly many times throughout the world.
Mosquitoes and Mosquito larvae are critical food sources for numerous creatures. No mosquitoes == no larvae == starving little fish, starving bats, starving birds, starving spiders, etc.. etc.. etc...
Only a few species of mosquito transmit malaria. Most do not. The beauty of this extermination gene is that it only affects the targeted species. The population of other mosquitoes will expand to fill the niche, and the little fishes will be fine.
Eventually, yes. There's a very consistent pattern. When countries industrialise and get all the good stuff like healthcare, dependable food and sanitation the population does rise very rapidly - every time. It takes a full generation for the culture to change to reflect the new conditions. Once cultural change does catch up, then growth levels off and sometimes even goes negative.
Weighs can also mean considers the importance of different parts of a decision.. IE. Weighs the factors in a decision.
In Ouagadougou, it is a bit more literal. They weigh the scientist on a beam balance to see if he is heavier than a mosquito. Or a duck.
The change does not prevent the sterile males from seeking out females and mating. It just prevents the eggs being properly fertilized. If you can get your sterile males released in enough of a quantity, the almost all the fertile males will be out-competed by the infertile ones, leading to almost no successful breedings and almost no mosquitoes in the next generation. You have to keep up your production and release of sterile males, but this is very good at short-term control.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
Or even "weighs the value in using..."
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
Mosquitos are immune to Malaria ... but they suck blood from humans ... and hence transport Malaria parasites from one human to the other.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
It seems absurd that this decision is left up to "villagers". It seems like scientists and political leaders should be making these decisions.
The scientists and politicians are ready to proceed. Now they're talking the villagers into being the test site.
The Villages don't have approval power, the Government doesn't, but the researchers have extended the villages veto power as a courtesy; the villagers being the ones who'll have to live with the results good or ill. Many places in Africa have complex parallel power structures, our concept of country is rather foreign to Africans and usually ignored once the military moves on.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Magic Fairy Dust kills all bad bugs.
Magic Fairy Dust kills nothing but bad bugs.
Nothing but Magic Fairy Dust kills bad bugs.
Magic Fairy Dust does not persist in the environment.
Eggshells do not have to support ten pounds of raptor.
Who needs eagles, hawks and falcons anyway? All they do is control the varmint population.
Seriously, turn off Fox Propaganda, go read Silent Spring and only then can you have an informed opinion on what Rachel Carson wrote.
Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
Immune = "can't be infected", which current mosquitoes obviously are not. They're just not dramatically sickened by their infection. Similarly sheep aren't immune to anthrax, they're just not harmed by it.
And actually a malarial infection causes behavioral changes in mosquitoes, though from what I've found it hasn't yet been established whether the changes are a net benefit or hazard to the mosquito.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Hm, never heared that the mosquitos themsleves are infected. The parasites live in the human blood the mosquitos suck. Not in the blood of the mosquitos. But perhaps they can infect the organs of the mosquito. I found an article on sciense mag, http://www.sciencemag.org/news...
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
It still doesn't make much sense, I mean, which village is meant, and since when are villages allowed to make such decisions.
So a local jurisdiction should have no say on whether it and its people are to be used for experimental scientific tests?
The "failures" can be overwhelmed though. As in the case of Brazil, they just release swarm after swarm of modified males until the females are only able to mate with the toxic males. Populations in some parts of Brazil have dropped 99-100% with zero infections in months.
It's like "herd immunity" in reverse.
I am willing to take the risk of BREAKING THE ECOSYSTEM to get rid of all human-biting mosquitoes. They are responsible for propagating malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever, filariasis, encephalitis, and Zika. They probably have killed more humans than anything else, even cancer and war.
- I live the greatest adventure anyone could possibly desire. - Tosk the Hunted
Both the WHO and the U.S. FDA have approved the technique, but skeptics are critical of the method.
They wouldn't be very good skeptics otherwise.
They live in the saliva if I recall correctly. But presumably also link in to the brain somehow since they change feeding behaviors.
In this case "infected" basically just means "acts as a host for" - just as you are currently infected by hundreds of microorganisms that aren't doing any obvious harm. Making them immune prevents them from acing as a viable host. Not sure if that entails tweaking their immune system to kill the parasites, or maybe just adds/removes something in their metabolism that prevents the parasites from going through the mosquito-borne stages of their life cycle.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
While malaria is the big one when it comes to mosquito transmitted diseases, we also have many other horrible diseases carried by mosquitoes.
Furtermore, as long as mosquitos exist, there will continue to be new mosquito vector blood-borne diseases evolving.
I say exterminate the brutes, but as others have pointed out, we have to be absolutely 100% sure that gene drive doesn't spread to other members of the Culicidae family, or worse, climb up to the Diptera order.
100% sure.
A non-eradicate mosquito solution to malaria will leave us with these, many of which have no treatment and no vaccine.
Chikungunya
Dengue
Yellow Fever
Eastern Equine Encephalitis
St. Louis Encephalitis
LaCrosse Encephalitis
Western Equine Encephalitis
West Nile Virus
Zika Virus
filariasis
Dog Heartworm ( another filarial worm )
botfly larvae
Ross River fever and similar viral induced polyarthritis
Thanks. It's good to know my efforts are appreciated.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
It isn't. Let's say, at the beginning of the season, with populations low at 100 males and 100 females, you release 1000 sterile males. Of the 100 females who try to breed, only 10 of them will do so with a fertile male, leading to a lot less mosquitoes. This can be even more effective if your sterile males, grown in perfect lab conditions, are healthy and strong, but the viable males who grew up in the wild, with limited food and water as well as sub-optimal temperature and humidity, are weak.
If you instead release 1000 female mosquitoes, the 100 fertile female mosquitoes will still find mates and breed normally, as mosquitoes aren't monogamous. Sterile females will have little effect.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
The only real alternative right now is DDT, and whilst the human toxicity of DDT is a bit exaggerated in the public imagination, its still not exactly a great solution and has awful environmental effects. Worse, the bloody mozzies are developing resistance.
What are folks to do? Reject it because of a theoretical concern about gene propagation whilst theres a very concrete concern about the alternatives? Malaria is a thief in the night who steals entire generations. Forget HIV, malaria is the #1 health issue in the world (Although while we are there, Malaria is a death sentence for HIV afflicted folk. Which in africa makes it serious double jepardy)
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.