Millions of GMO mosquitoes could soon be released in Florida

January 26, 2015

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A British biotech firm is planning a unique experiment designed to help combat a pair of painful viral diseases, but residents of the Florida Keys are not exactly welcoming their efforts.

In fact, according to UPI reports, more than 140,000 people living in that state have signed a petition attempting to prevent the organization, Oxitec, from moving forward with their research – which just happens to involve the release of millions of genetically modified mosquitoes.

The media organization explains that the bloodsucking insects have been altered to produce offspring incapable of surviving to adulthood. Once released into the wild, they will seek out female mosquitoes, mate with them, and ultimately help reduce the insect’s population – helping to combat the potentially-lethal dengue fever and chikungunya fever in the process.

In theory, it may sound like an effective way to combat two painful and life-threatening viruses, but those living in the communities where the experiment is scheduled to take place are balking at the thought of being bitten by insects that have been genetically modified in a laboratory.

Oxitec has to get approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they can start their experiments, and residents in Florida have turned to an online petition to voice their displeasure with the proposed release of the mosquitoes. In the petition, they decry the “mutant bugs” and noted that genetically-modified crop experiments have gone wrong in the past.

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Brazil releases 'good' mosquitoes to fight dengue fever

24 September 2014 Last updated at 22:38

Brazilian researchers in Rio de Janeiro have released thousands of mosquitoes infected with bacteria that suppress dengue fever.

The hope is they will multiply, breed and become the majority of mosquitoes, thus reducing cases of the disease.

The initiative is part of a programme also taking place in Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The intracellular bacteria, Wolbachia, being introduced cannot be transmitted to humans.

The programme started in 2012 says Luciano Moreira of the Brazilian research institute Fiocruz, who is leading the project in Brazil .

"Our teams performed weekly visits to the four neighbourhoods in Rio being targeted. Mosquitoes were analysed after collection in special traps.

"Transparency and proper information for the households is a priority. "

Ten thousand mosquitoes will be released each month for four months with the first release in Tubiacanga, in the north of Rio.

Continued ...

Tiger Mosquito, Vector of Chikungunya Virus and Dengue Fever, Is More Flighty Than First Thought

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2012) — Female tiger mosquitoes, vectors of the chikungunya virus and of dengue fever, had been thought to mate only once during their short few weeks of life. They are apparently much less faithful than imagined, however. A team representing the IRD and its partners(1) has discovered that they may in fact mate with several males during their short lives. What is more, the same clutch of eggs can be engendered by different fathers! For their part, the males can mate with over 10 different females.

These recent studies, conducted on the island of Reunion and published notably in the journal PLOS ONE, will make it possible to perfect the "sterile insect technique." This innovative approach to fighting against vectors of disease consists of fooling females into mating with infertile males so as to reduce the population of mosquitoes in the wild. Researchers will, in particular, be able to establish what quantity of sterilised males to release in order to compensate for the infidelities of the females.

Dengue fever and the chikungunya virus continue to take their toll all over the world. In the absence of either a vaccine or effective treatment, attacking the vector remains the sole course of action. If this new method proves promising, it will offer an ecologically acceptable alternative to the use of insecticides.

Read on:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121105081501.htm

Future Dengue Forecast: Intricate Relationships Between Mosquitoes, Virus and Climate Change Found

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2012) — Dengue fever most likely will become a disease the United States must learn to live with as climate change creates opportunities for the disease to gain a foothold.

But after careful study of the disease's characteristics, the mosquitoes that carry it and future climate change, two researchers at Texas Tech University said the impact on areas likely to experience dengue won't necessarily play out along the lines of conventional wisdom.

Their findings were published July 5 in Environmental Research Letters.

Many studies have looked at how climate change might alter the geographic range of the mosquito-borne disease and assume the disease will occur wherever mosquitoes that carry it are found. This generally leads to predictions that the disease will move northward as the climate warms.

However, Texas Tech researchers dug deeper to study climate constraints on the geographic range of the mosquito that carries dengue and the incubation characteristics of the disease within the mosquito. Factoring these into the equation, they found Southern outbreaks would decrease in size overall and become more common in the spring and fall while Northern areas could experience larger outbreaks throughout the summer.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120705151204.htm