5 million genetically modified mosquitoes suddenly appeared, and their "suicidal" behavior was unprecedented. Do you support or oppose it?

I believe most people hate mosquitoes because they are everywhere in dark corners and will bite you as soon as they get a chance. This bite not only makes you itchy and uncomfortable, but is also likely to spread diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever, encephalitis, etc., which are all transmitted by mosquitoes.

A survey by the World Health Organization shows that 725,000 people die each year from diseases spread by mosquitoes, making mosquitoes the number one killer of humans in the animal kingdom. Humans have come up with many ways to eliminate the harm caused by mosquitoes, but with little success.

Modern science, especially breakthroughs in genetic research, has provided more space for human health and longevity, as well as new ways to eliminate and reduce the harm of mosquitoes. Recently, an American biotechnology company called Oxitec completed the first field experiment of genetically modified mosquitoes. This achievement was published in the April 18th issue of Nature News Weekly. Let's share it together.

This is a study on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Wild Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can carry viruses such as chikungunya, dengue, Zika and yellow fever. In order to control the spread of these diseases, scientists have been looking for ways to reduce the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. This study by Oxitec is to modify the genes of male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes so that they carry a gene fragment that is lethal to female offspring.

Researchers call this type of mosquito engineered mosquitoes, which do not bite themselves but only mate with female mosquitoes. Although the mated female mosquitoes conceive a bunch of offspring, the female mosquitoes in these offspring will not live long because they carry the fatal gene fragments, and will die before they reach adulthood and reproduce offspring; while the male offspring will still carry this fatal gene and continue to look for female mosquitoes to fall in love with, thus passing on the fatal gene from generation to generation.

In this way, the number of Aedes aegypti will decrease and eventually become extinct.

Oxitec has been conducting this experiment in the Florida Keys since April 2021. Researchers found a private territory in this tropical island group and released nearly 5 million genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes over a period of 7 months. They have been monitoring the release sites and completed the experiment in April this year.

The experimental method is to release boxes of engineered mosquito eggs in a private garden and surround them with traps, which are used to capture adult mosquitoes and as egg-laying sites for female mosquitoes, covering a radius of about 400 meters. The study found that the hatched male mosquitoes can fly up to 10,000 square meters around the release box, which is the same as the flight range of wild Aedes aegypti.

The mated wild female mosquitoes laid eggs in traps specially prepared for them, as well as in flower pots, trash can lids, and soft drink cans. The researchers collected more than 22,000 mosquito eggs from the traps and brought them back to the laboratory for hatching experiments, and found that all the female mosquitoes died before they became adults.

Monitoring also found that these engineered mosquitoes could only persist in the population for two or three months and disappeared after about three generations of mosquitoes. That is to say, this group of mosquitoes "infected" by the engineered mosquitoes became extinct after three generations of transmission, and no engineered mosquitoes were found more than 400 meters away from the egg box.

However, experts believe that these studies are still limited and cannot prove whether the disease transmission can be blocked. Moreover, it is not only the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads these diseases, so there is still a long way to go to study the elimination of mosquito-borne diseases. Many research institutions, including Oxitec, are conducting various expansion tests.

There are many different research methods, but they all aim to reduce the mosquito population, such as infecting male mosquitoes with Wolbachia so that they can mate with wild populations and produce eggs that cannot hatch.

These studies have excited biologists and entomologists. Thomas Scott, an entomologist at the University of California, Davis, said: I like their approach and am very encouraged, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Not everyone supports this method of eliminating mosquitoes. There are still many controversies about whether or not mosquitoes should be eliminated. Some people are happy and some are unhappy. Those who support the elimination of mosquitoes believe that mosquitoes are evil and have no benefit to humans. Even if they do not spread diseases, they cause a lot of trouble to people. The buzzing makes people uncomfortable, especially in summer nights and in some areas with bad environments, making it difficult for people to fall asleep.

There are two types of people who do not support it. One is the extreme environmentalists who believe that killing mosquitoes will destroy the ecological balance and put animals such as bats and toads that rely on eating mosquitoes for food at risk of starvation. The other type is the anti-GM technology, which is opposed to all GMO technology, including the use of GMO technology to eliminate mosquitoes. They are all evil.

Now, although the US government has approved the experiment of releasing this "killer" mosquito to fight the disease, there is still great resistance to the experiment, and there is serious obstruction and interference from opponents in some places. The world has always been like this, there is always a group of people who enjoy the convenience and achievements brought by science while trying their best to disparage and hinder the progress of science. In this way, any scientific thing always moves forward with bumps and bruises.

So, will the extinction of mosquitoes really destroy the ecological balance and bring disaster to mankind? I don't think so. Since the emergence of life 3.7 billion years ago, how many species have become extinct and how many species have been born? I have never seen the world end or stop moving forward because of the extinction of a certain organism.

The huge family of dinosaurs that ruled the world for 160 million years became extinct, but instead of becoming extinct, the living things created conditions for the emergence of humans. The mosquito species appeared in the Jurassic period 170 million years ago. Along the way, many species such as dinosaurs have been "bullied" by them and donated blood for them.

But 65 million years ago, 85% of species including dinosaurs became extinct. Mosquitoes no longer have the blood of dinosaurs and other extinct species to nourish them, but they did not starve to death. Instead, they survived to this day and are becoming more and more well-fed.

There are more than 3,600 species and subspecies of mosquitoes. Scientific methods can reduce the number of mosquito populations, but they may not necessarily eliminate the entire mosquito population. I strongly support and look forward to using all scientific methods to eliminate these hateful mosquitoes so that humans can live more comfortably and healthily.

What do you think about this? Welcome to discuss, thank you for reading.

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