Wednesday, January 4, 2012

spermless mosquitoes could help halt malaria spread


Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that affects up to 300 million people and kills nearly 800,000 every year. Its threat is greatest in Africa.

Although, I don't like this idea of castrating the male mosquitoes as recommended by the author,  but this is a alternative solution as described in the following article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/08/us-malaria-mosquitoes-sperm-idUSTRE77758A20110808



Instead, of castrating the male mosquitoes. We need find a chemical which can make both male and female mosquitoes sterile.




Below is an excerpt from the article:


"In the fight against malaria, many hope that the ability to genetically control the mosquito vector will one day be a key part of our armory," said Flaminia Catteruccia from Imperial's life sciences department, who led the study.



But she added that for these currently theoretical control ideas to work in practice, scientists have to establish whether the insects would continue to mate as normal, unaware that their sexual mechanisms had been tampered with.
After mating for the first and only time in her life, the female mosquito goes through certain physiological changes, then eats a meal of blood, and lays a batch of eggs.

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