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Post by lilolpeapicker on Sept 20, 2019 19:47:40 GMT -5
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Sept 20, 2019 22:41:59 GMT -5
I wonder how the hybrids were released into the open w/o testing first in labs to determine what the offspring would be. Now they've produced what might be a new breed. I noticed that the biotech lab in question wasn't named.
This could be the theme of a mosquito horror movie, or an X-Files episode.
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Sept 22, 2019 6:31:47 GMT -5
They should have known. Our government allows us to be the guinea pigs.
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Post by gardendmpls on Sept 22, 2019 8:28:58 GMT -5
This is not necessarily anything bad, if the mosquito population overall was reduced. The modification was to produce sterile offspring. They usually put in a genetic "tag" to identify the mosquitos and any offspring. The ones found with the tag may not have the modified gene and so reproduced. Would have liked to have a link to the study to actually see what happened.
Screwworms lay their eggs on open wounds in cattle or the navels of newborn calves. The maggots eat living tissue and can kill the animal. When sterilized male screwworm flies were released to control the population, a few still mated, but overall, it brought the population down and eventually eradicated the flies.
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Post by gardendmpls on Sept 22, 2019 8:51:01 GMT -5
OK, found a good article in Science magazine. Some highlights: "There’s no evidence that these hybrids endanger humans more than the wild mosquitoes or that they’ll render Oxitec’s strategy ineffective, both the paper’s authors and the company agree." The criticisms are not of the paper, but of unsupported speculations made: "On Tuesday, the journal added an editor’s note to the paper saying its conclusions “are subject to criticisms that are being considered by editors.”" The main thing is that none of the hybrids carry the modified genes. They just carry other parts of the normal genome of the mosquitoes used, which indicates that some of the mosquitoes released did not have the genetic modification and therefore could breed. "Jason Rasgon, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University in State College who studies insect-borne diseases, says the genetic finding is important. “But I think there are a number of things that are really overhyped and kind of irresponsible about the paper, says Rasgon, who has no financial ties to Oxitec. The authors should have emphasized that they didn’t find any mosquitoes carrying Oxitec’s transgenes, he says, referring to the two genes, foreign to A. aegypti, introduced to kill offspring and to fluorescently label the mosquitoes as GM. The novel DNA that did show up in the Jacobina population was from the Oxitec mosquitoes’ genetic “background”—a cross between strains from Cuba and Mexico." "Rasgon, like Oxitec, takes issue with the paper’s assertion that the mixing of genomes “likely” made the population stronger by increasing its genetic variation. (“Failed GM mosquito control experiment may have strengthened wild bugs,” read one headline last week.) “We don’t know that that’s the case here, but we do know that this population is a hybrid of three strains,” Powell says. His team, however, didn’t test whether the hybrid mosquitoes were more resistant to pesticides or more likely to transmit disease. Neither was true of the Oxitec mosquitoes themselves, Rose says." So it appears that a published paper contained unsupported speculation that has been made into a headline grabber story which many people will read and take as the whole truth and nothing but, rather than delving deeper and reading more before forming opinions. Very annoying to us science teachers, but maybe can be turned into a lesson on the importance of researching and delving deeper to form conclusions, rather than relying totally on the popular media. Source: www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/09/study-dna-spread-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-prompts-backlash
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Post by oliverman on Oct 6, 2019 7:55:34 GMT -5
gardendmpls, I appreciated reading your well thought out and scientifically grounded response.
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Post by reuben on Oct 6, 2019 8:57:36 GMT -5
"There’s no evidence that these hybrids endanger humans more than the wild mosquitoes or that they’ll render Oxitec’s strategy ineffective, both the paper’s authors and the company agree." I remember hearing similar statements about DDT, agent orange, and thalidomide.
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Post by gardendmpls on Oct 6, 2019 12:52:58 GMT -5
But if you pay attention to the science, you will understand what is or is not happening. Thalidomide was never approved for use in pregnant women in the US because it was not tested for effects on pregnant women. Europe had lesser standards at the time. Cases in the US were women who had traveled to Europe and received the drug while there. DDt was released way back when. More testing would be required today, however, one must be able to understand the science or lack of it to interpret the findings. In this case, they took the findings and twisted them to make it seem they said something they did not.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Oct 6, 2019 13:56:00 GMT -5
I remember hearing similar statements about DDT, agent orange, and thalidomide. Yes, and anyone who's served in Vietnam knows about the effects of Agent Orange.
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Post by gardendmpls on Oct 7, 2019 18:13:41 GMT -5
They knew about it before, but sprayed it anyway. Not the same in this case.
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Oct 8, 2019 9:43:19 GMT -5
I do not feel these mosquitos and their effects were tested enough. Often we become the test subjects whether we like it or not.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Oct 8, 2019 11:53:24 GMT -5
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Post by gardendmpls on Oct 8, 2019 15:33:45 GMT -5
The modified mosquitoes with the gene for sterility did not breed, as they have not found any offspring with the sterility gene (duh). What they did find is that a small percentage of the mosquitoes did not have the gene and therefore could not be considered genetically modified. They were just regular mosquitoes of the version used to create modified mosquitoes and they bred like the other mosquitoes in the area were already doing. Numbers of mosquitoes were very reduced because of the modified mosquitoes, despite the few that were not modified. This is the same as with the screwworm flies. They exposed the males to radiation to sterilize them. If a few breeding males slipped through, there were enough sterile males to eliminate the population anyway.
Everything should definitely be tested, but I feel there are people who freak out to the extreme over any new technology, even when it is tested and found to be effective.
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Oct 9, 2019 1:21:56 GMT -5
I'm wondering what's going to happen with the vaccinating mosquitos (which aren't the mosquitos we're talking about here). They're, in my opinion, probably going to breed, whether they're supposed to be sterile or not. Eventually, the vaccination gene might mutate or mix with other genes from other GMO mosquitos, and who knows what will happen five hundred years from now (or 10, for that matter).
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