Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Oops …

… A Trial That Gene-Hacked Mosquitoes to Stop Breeding Has Backfired Spectacularly.

The genetically-altered mosquitoes did mix with the wild population, and for a brief period the number of mosquitoes in Jacobino, Brazil did plummet, according to research published in Nature Scientific Reports last week.
But 18 months later the population bounced right back up, New Atlas reports - and even worse, the new genetic hybrids may be even more resilient to future attempts to quell their numbers.

But then there’s this:
Mosquitoes capable of transmitting dangerous diseases like Zika, dengue, and malaria are spreading farther than ever, thanks to global climate change.
Really? Where I live used to be the source of yellow fever in Philadelphia (back then, it was a marsh). Which was George Washington moved to Germantown when he lived here during a yellow fever outbreak. We still have mosquitoes, but no yellow fever, and it’s still hot and humid as hell in the summer.  So the yellow fever mosquitoes to be here. If climate change is causing mosquitoes to increase their range, why aren’t they back here? Just wondering.

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