The July 9 issue of the New Yorker has a fascinating article by Michael Specter looking at how a biotech firm is looking to fight dengue by engineering male mosquitoes that can thrive when provided tetracycline in the lab, live long enough upon release to compete for mates and fertilize offpsring that then wither and die.
Flooding an ecosystem with infertile males has helped eradicate other pests, like the screw-worm, but that relied on good old radiation to scramble the genes. Mosquitoes are too small for that to work, so researchers have turned to genetic techniques instead.
As Specter reports, regions that bear the brunt of dengue are open to the approach, but Key West, which has endemic dengue it manages with insecticides, has proven resistant. A town hall on the subject raised fierce opposition. As one participant said, “I, for one, don’t care about your scientific crap…I don’t care about money you spend. You are not going to cram something down my throat that I don’t want. I am no guinea pig.”
The article is a great read, outlining potential problems in the GM approach while making a persuasive claim that it’s the right one. It’s concerning to see several people make the simplistic argument that “natural” is good and “man-made” is bad. After all, a virus is natural and a vaccine is engineered. But if enough people in Key West catch dengue, they may find they want some “scientific crap” after all.
