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The government has delayed a landmark field trial to release genetically modified mosquitoes designed to combat dengue fever, an official said Tuesday, following protests from environmentalists.
In the first experiment of its kind in Asia, 4,000-6,000 male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were originally scheduled to be released by last month in a bid to fight dengue, which killed at least 134 people last year in Malaysia alone.
The insects have been engineered so that their offspring quickly die, curbing the growth of the population in a technique researchers hope could eventually eradicate the dengue mosquito altogether.
GM mosquito trial postponed after protest - Malaysiakini
Seeded on Tue Jan 4, 2011 8:18 PM EST
Article Source: malaysiakini.com- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (5)
A senior official from the Biosafety Department told AFP that the trial, which was to be carried out in two Malaysian states, has been postponed pending further discussion with residents in the trial areas.
"There are a lot of protests. We are now aiming to carry out the trial in the first half of 2011," said Mohamed Mohamad Salleh, the department's director of research and evaluation.
They are experimenting it at populated areas with no natural control barriers. There is apparently no contingency.
- 2 votes
#1 - Tue Jan 4, 2011 8:28 PM ESTWhen people try to change Mother Nature she usually gets a really bad case of PMS and we all pay a heavy price and when we play with genetic engineering we are playing a dangerous game. For whatever reason people almost seem to have a need to ruin our planet.
Please excuse my ignorance, what is Dengue fever? I have heard of it, but because this disease does not effect the US, I don't know what it is or does, so I'm in need of some education.
Dengue fever (UK: /ˈdɛŋɡeɪ/, US: /ˈdɛŋɡiː/), also known as breakbone fever, is an acute febrile infectious disease caused by the dengue virus. Typical symptoms include headache, a petechial rash, and muscle and joint pains; in a small proportion the disease progresses to life-threatening complications such as dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome.
Dengue is usually transmitted by the mosquitoAedes aegypti, and rarely Aedes albopictus. The virus has four different serotypes, and an infection with one usually gives lifelong immunity to it but only short-term immunity to the others. There is currently no available vaccine, but outbreaks can be prevented by reducing the habitat and number of mosquitoes, and limiting exposure to bites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever
Mark, you get it from mosquito bites of those carrying the virus. You probably do not need to worry about unless the mosquitoes mutate and adapt itself to colder climate. But then we never know what is really behind "multimillion research". Can we really trust what they say?
- 1 vote
Thank you for the education, I figure the dumbest question ever, is the question that is never asked, so if I want to know I have to ask. As I'm sure you're aware disease and biology is an area of interest to me.
Here in New Jersey we joke that we should start calling the mosquito our state bird, our mosquitos can carry and spread West Nile Virus, which is a form of encephilitis, but that is rare. We also use some of the same methods you mentioned to control and eliminate habitats, such as eliminating standing or stagnant water.
According to Jessie Ventura's Conspircy theory, Lyme Disease was created by our government at Plum Island, the project was started and ran by a Nazi Bio weapons scientist, that we picked up under Operation Paperclip, that started experimenting with using ticks to spread disease, while working for Hitler, now we have Lyme Disease that is carried exculsively by ticks. Seems like more then a coincidence to me.
Lyme disease is named after the town of Lyme, Connecticut where the first outbreak was recorded in 1975. This town is only about 70 miles from Plum Island.
Mark, GM "anything" did not strike me as particularly dangerous until I saw Jessy Ventura's video. It all started with "good intentions" but where is the check and balance. For many years I thought the offshore oil industry was well regulated with the tons of safety (HSE) manuals on what to do and what not to do. It was horrifying when the layers of "security" which we thought we had started to peel off. We are actually "stark naked" if you really examine the situation. I particularly like the story : "the emperor wore no clothes". It is so true.
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