###BASE_URL###

GENET-news articles on GE mosquitoes

compilation of all relevant GENET-news articles

GE mosquitoes in Malaysia

click here to read news on GE mosquitoes from Malaysia only

GE mosquitoes on the Cayman Islands

click to read news on GE mosqitoes from the Cayman Islands only

2011-09-19 |

Oxitec and U.S. molecular biologist propose GM mosquitoes to fight dengue in the Philippines

In a round table discussion attended by at least 60 Filipino scientists on Monday, foreign scientists from the British company Oxford Insect Technologies (Oxitec) and the National Academy of Sciences proposed their newest technology aimed at eradicating the Aedes aegypti species of dengue-bearing mosquitoes. Dr. Luke Alphey, co-founder and chief scientist of Oxitec, and Dr. Anthony James, a molecular biologist and a member of NAS, who are both part of the team working on the genetically engineered mosquitoes, are in the country upon the invitation of the DOST.

2011-09-19 |

Swarm troopers: GE mosquito armies waging war in the wild

In 2009, Oxitec began a series of field trials of this strain of A. aegypti in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean, making it the first engineered mosquito to be let loose in the wild. The trial showed that the engineered mosquitoes survive and disperse from the site of release, and compete well for mates. [...] “We got about half as many transgenic offspring as you would have expected had everything been equal,” he says. “But this is way more than you need for success.” The mosquitoes also performed well in a small trial in Malaysia, says Alphey. Now a bigger trial is getting under way in Juazeiro, Brazil, which Alphey hopes will be scaled up into a full-scale control programme.

2011-09-05 |

Bacteria-infected mosquitoes may fight dengue

[Researchers] showed that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the chief carriers of the dengue virus, resist spreading that virus if they are infected with a particular kind of bacteria. Then they tested whether these resistant mosquitoes could displace their ordinary cousins in the wild, thus reducing the number of dengue-spreading mosquitoes. [...] For the experiment, scientists released more than 140,000 resistant mosquitoes over 10 weeks in each of two isolated communities near Cairns in northeastern Australia, starting last January. By mid-April, monitoring found that resistant mosquitoes made up 90 percent to 100 percent of the wild population.

2011-08-15 |

Spermless GE mosquitoes could halt malaria spread

Malaria is spread to humans by female mosquitoes who suck blood in order to help their offspring grow, but British scientists said Monday that introducing spermless males could halt the deadly disease. Scientists at Imperial College London said that by genetically tweaking male mosquitoes to produce no sperm, females would still mate with them but would lay unfertilized eggs that would not hatch into mosquito larvae.
Since the females of the species Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto, the main type responsible for spreading malaria in Africa, mate only once in their lives, the discovery could have broad implications for a disease that kills nearly 800,000 people per year.

2011-05-05 |

GM soy in Paraguay: The invisible ingredient ’poisoning’ children

”Soy destroys people’s lives,” she says. ”It is a poison. It is no way to live. Soy is deadly to us”. Sitting outside her painted green shack in rural Paraguay, the mother of eight describes the day in January 2003 when her 11-year-old son Silvino Talavera came home from cycling to the shops. ”I was washing clothes down by the river and he came to tell me he had been sprayed by one of the mosquitoes (the spraying machines behind a tractor),” she says. ”He smelt so bad that he took his clothes off and jumped straight in the water.”

2011-05-02 |

Scientists manipulate mosquitoes in malaria fight

Scientists working on malaria have found a way of genetically manipulating large populations of mosquitoes that could eventually dramatically reduce the spread of the deadly disease. In a study in the journal Nature, researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Washington, Seattle found that after making specific genetic changes to a few mosquitoes and then allowing them to breed on, genetic alterations could be spread through large mosquito populations in a few generations.

2011-04-20 |

Building a better GM mosquito for Mexico

In Mexico, Lavery and James faced a more immediate challenge: how can you test GM mosquitoes in the field without exploiting people in a poor community? How do you make sure they’re properly informed? [...] They held numerous meetings with the community, hired an anthropologist, and spent two years in consultations to buy land for the giant mosquito cages, a process required by local law. They spent time, with local translators in tow, getting to know farmers and nurses. They call it community engagement.

2011-02-16 |

Transparency is essential for GE mosquito trials

Transparency is essential. The Malaysian authorities went to some lengths to inform people that the trials were going ahead, holding open forums and briefing the media, which gave the experiments wide coverage. [...] By contrast, efforts by the Cayman Island authorities seem to have amounted to not much more than producing little-reported leaflets and a video, posted on YouTube and broadcast on television, which failed to say that the mosquitoes were genetically modified — the main concern of critics. [...] Oxitec acknowledges that there are lessons to learn from its experiences. Best placed to judge the results of this are the people of Brazil, the planned site of the company’s next experiment.

2011-02-10 |

GM mosquitoes: Why not spent the money on improving drains and sewerage systems?

[Sungai Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar] said 3% to 4% of them would be female and could copy the role of the wild female Aedes to spread dengue. He said such biological suppression could not completely eliminate the species from the environment and the government would have to go on purchasing, releasing and killing the GM mosquitoes. ”We would need billions of these transgenic mosquitoes for an average sized city,” he said. ”Wouldn’t it be more logical and productive if that same sum were spent in improving the drains and sewerage systems in our urban areas?”

2011-02-02 |

A quiet release of GE mosquitoes in Malaysia

The covert manner in which GM mosquitoes were released in Bentong calls into question the level of transparency of the whole affair. WITH transparency being one of the key watchwords in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s administration, it was heartening to note the efforts made by the National Biosafety Board to elicit public feedback during the approval process for the Institute for Medical Research’s application to release genetically-modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Bentong, Pahang, and Alor Gajah, Malacca.

go to page: ← ... 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ... →

Home: GENET