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EPA Approves Release of Bacteria-Carrying Mosquitoes To 20 States (nature.com)
schwit1 writes: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the use of a common bacterium to kill wild mosquitoes that transmit viruses such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika, Nature's news team has learned. On November 3rd, the agency told biotechnology start-up MosquitoMate that it could release the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis into the environment as a tool against the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). Lab-reared mosquitoes will deliver the bacterium to wild mosquito populations. The decision -- which the EPA has not formally announced -- allows the company, which is based in Lexington, Kentucky, to release the bacteria-infected mosquitoes in 20 U.S. states and Washington DC.
MosquitoMate will rear the Wolbachia-infected A. albopictus mosquitoes in its laboratories, and then sort males from females. Then the laboratory males, which don't bite, will be released at treatment sites. When these males mate with wild females, which do not carry the same strain of Wolbachia, the resulting fertilized eggs don't hatch because the paternal chromosomes do not form properly. The company says that over time, as more of the Wolbachia-infected males are released and breed with the wild partners, the pest population of A. albopictus mosquitoes dwindles. Other insects, including other species of mosquito, are not harmed by the practice, says Stephen Dobson, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and founder of MosquitoMate.
MosquitoMate will rear the Wolbachia-infected A. albopictus mosquitoes in its laboratories, and then sort males from females. Then the laboratory males, which don't bite, will be released at treatment sites. When these males mate with wild females, which do not carry the same strain of Wolbachia, the resulting fertilized eggs don't hatch because the paternal chromosomes do not form properly. The company says that over time, as more of the Wolbachia-infected males are released and breed with the wild partners, the pest population of A. albopictus mosquitoes dwindles. Other insects, including other species of mosquito, are not harmed by the practice, says Stephen Dobson, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and founder of MosquitoMate.
It’s not like bacteria frequently mutate and jump species!
And this only makes the entire species go completely extinct! Like in that Star Trek Voyager episode. So fuck the moral implications.
</sarcasm>
It will be fun times, when it turns out that humanity really is too dumb to live.
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For their next trick, free Ebola sandwiches!
Is that like Free Mandela tee-shirts?
Mosquitoes are God's creatures. Don't fuck with them.
The bacterium Wolbachia pipientis is also a creation of our Lord. We are only being a servant of God.
(||) Nehmo (||)
(c) but as far as I know, separating captive males and females is not so easy
They should have the male work a full-time job while giving the female stay-at-home mosquito an unlimited wine-budget and a sense of superiority. That usually does it in the species I've observed.
Ok, so you agree this can and will start a zombie apocalypse, that's all I needed to hear. Time to top off those ammo bins.
Except for the ones that do form. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping mutant DNA; the mosquitos will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted Slashdot moderator, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground anti-DEET research labs.