How Sex Could Wipe Out Malaria Interesting new approach to getting rid of the malaria epidemic. Basically introducing a gene that makes 95% of offspring Male. Only the female suck blood, and also with fewer females, there will be successively fewer offspring each generation till that Mosquito is eradicated and extinct. Right now, this is only the case for one type of the 3000 species of mosquitoes, so if successful, it won't make much of a dent in malaria initially, but it would be a new path that could be taken towards gene manipulation to eradicate each species, one by one. Of course, this leads to the question, what would the repercussions be if we eliminated such a ubiquitous species. Bats, fish, frogs, birds, spiders, and many more animals have mosquitoes as a major part of their diet. How would their eradication affect those populations. I'm generally on team people, and I hate those little biting bastards, but I fear it's an action like this that could end up leading to a much bigger mess.
I tend to agree that screwing around with species has unintended and often deleterious consequences. I'd rather see research into a vaccine.
Well there has apparently been a lot of research, but few gains. Malaria is a protozoal parasite, not bacterial or viral, which means it's bigger and much more complicated than making some vaccine for a virus or bacteria. It has been said that designing a vaccine for Malaria would be a similar undertaking to finding a vaccine for cancer. So a vaccine may be several decades or more away right now, but we are currently losing about 2.7 million people annually to Malaria.
I am aware of the problems, Further - I just don't like this idea. As you said, a lot of other species depend on mosquitos for the food chain. If we are going to tinker, how about introducing a mutation that prevents them from carrying the parasite?
I love that idea. Hopefully, this current step will spur on more research into genetic manipulation in areas like what you mention. Right now it's two bad options, kill millions of people or kill off a cornerstone species. Time for more options.
This country needs a Mosquito Czar to eradicate the enemy. I nominate Bush. I am confident he will win the war.
Another thought, and I am far from expert on the subject, is environmental. I mean, there are mosquitos everywhere but not malaria epidemics. Sanitation appears to be a big factor; do you have sewage treatment? Garbage disposal? Or is it just dumped? Also, very low tech mosquito nets can help prevent transmission. I worry about tinkering. I recall how everyone cried about wolves killing deer and the wolves get killed off, then the deer without natural predators starved. How pike were introduced as sports fish and destroyed native fish. Not to mention the CURSED MORON who brought snails to North America so we could learn to appreciate escargots, and generations of gardeners have fought the damn snails ever since. I'd rather work on disease transmission than screw up ecosystems. Just read today that a quick genetic marker has been found that can help pinpoint origins of malaria outbreaks.
