Field trials in Bentong, a town in the state of Pahang, Malaysia, were conducted to determine if GM mosquitoes could help keep dengue at bay, with a final determination that such an attempt does not yield any benefits. In fact, the risks were found to be so great that the plan was halted altogether; health officials expressed strong disinterest in pursuing the GM mosquito project after they found that these trials would ultimately be ineffective.
Releasing male GM Aedes aegypti mosquitoes into the wild with the hopes that they would mate and produce offspring that would die before adulthood -- and therefore prevent the spread of dengue -- were found to carry risks on health, financial and environmental levels.
Dr. Lee Han Lim of the Medical Entomology Unit and WHO Collaborating Centre for Vectors at the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) said that the detailed studies on this controversial topic confirmed that GM Aedes aegypti is unable to fight dengue; their ability to halt transmissible disease was not altered, nor was their biology, mating competitiveness or overall behavior. That's right -- no beneficial changes whatsoever were identified from this process!
"We did not proceed further after the initial study," said the country's health director-general Datuk Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. He suggested that it simply wouldn't be a wise financial move to implement on a larger, ongoing scale since the initial field trials didn't prove to be effective.
Brazil, too, which was involved in GM mosquito testing, has also announced that they will not proceed with such a method in an attempt to control dengue. Full story...
Related posts:
Releasing male GM Aedes aegypti mosquitoes into the wild with the hopes that they would mate and produce offspring that would die before adulthood -- and therefore prevent the spread of dengue -- were found to carry risks on health, financial and environmental levels.
Dr. Lee Han Lim of the Medical Entomology Unit and WHO Collaborating Centre for Vectors at the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) said that the detailed studies on this controversial topic confirmed that GM Aedes aegypti is unable to fight dengue; their ability to halt transmissible disease was not altered, nor was their biology, mating competitiveness or overall behavior. That's right -- no beneficial changes whatsoever were identified from this process!
"We did not proceed further after the initial study," said the country's health director-general Datuk Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. He suggested that it simply wouldn't be a wise financial move to implement on a larger, ongoing scale since the initial field trials didn't prove to be effective.
Brazil, too, which was involved in GM mosquito testing, has also announced that they will not proceed with such a method in an attempt to control dengue. Full story...
Related posts:
- This is the biggest swarm of genetically modified mosquitoes ever set free...
- 300,000 anti-dengue mosquitoes released in Australia...
- Malaysia releases 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes to combat dengue fever...
- The Bill Gates Foundation, dengue fever and "flying vaccines..."
- In Estonia there's a competition for ... catching mosquitoes!!!
- Denise Frank; the chick that is irresistable to mosquitoes!!!
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