Dengue gets passed around by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito, commonly found in Southeast Asia. The 6000 mosquitoes in question are all males, scientifically engineered to live shorter and, most importantly, be infertile. By driving down the mosquito population, scientists hope to curb Dengue fever if not eliminate it entirely.
All of which has lead to some ethical concerns among locals and outside observers. Can we really fuss with the gene pool of a species so brazenly? And while adding 6000 mosquitoes to the mix may help stem Dengue fever, it also, uh, adds a lot of mosquitoes to a place that’s already riddled with the pests. Still, I’d rather a quick bite from a harmless bug than a horrible life-threatening disease. [AFP Fast Company]
James
Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 9:38 AMOnly females bite people.
Damo
Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 7:51 AMMutant Mosquitos… Can’t see what might go wrong there…
Awnshegh
Monday, January 31, 2011 at 9:00 AMHmm. We all know what happens when you introduce something new into an ecosystem (cane toads anyone) but this is a new type of silly. These mosquitos are genetically infertile.
So I’m sure in the lab it was great that they tested it 300,000 odd times. But once you let it out into the wild there is no telling what the side effects will be.
Ross
Monday, January 31, 2011 at 10:42 AMI think 6000 Toxorhynchites mosquitoes would be better… They don’t drink blood and apparently they eat other mosquito’s larva!
WIN!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites
Wasp Catcher
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 3:07 PMDengue fever is such a problem in the Philippines. If there were any way to stop it, I’m sure we’d take it. So bring on the mosquitoes!!