Insecticidal Resistance : The Looming Threat Of Resistance

Ecological factors that encourage the Anopheles mosquito, and thus also encourage the prevalence of malaria include: being near the equator, densely populated areas, warmer temperatures, standing water, maintaining water for irrigation and deforested areas. (Holy p.1)

The one thing that could keep me inside on a nice summer’s day is the threat of mosquitoes. Where they bite me, I swell up and itch for days afterwards. It’s a hard choice between slathering myself in nasty smelling insect repellant or staying inside. Sometimes even with the insect repellant I still get bit. To add insult to injury, they sometimes get in the house and attack me. They seem to be an annoyance I can’t escape. I’m lucky that the mosquitoes that bite me don’t carry dangerous diseases like the ones in other counties. Daniel Engber who wrote the article “Let’s Kill All the Mosquitoes” has the solution to our problem. He makes a great argument to kill the dangerous mosquitoes and it’s very well supported with credible sources.

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) consists of irradiating laboratory-reared male insects before hatching, to sterilize them. The sterilized males are then released in large numbers in the infested areas. When they mate with females, no offspring are produced. With repeated releases of sterilized males, the population of the insect pest in a given area is drastically reduced. The largest SIT operations so far have been conducted in Mexico against the Mediterranean fruit fly and the screwworm. In 1981 the Medfly operation was declared a complete success, and by 1991 the screwworm eradication had yielded some 3 billion US dollars in benefits to the economy.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito are among the deadliest creatures on the planet. They transmitted the yellow-fever virus in the nineteen-thirties to millions of people. They also carry a deadly virus called Dengue, which has no vaccine or cure. According to WHO, the disease affects 50 million people a year. Oxitec, a British biotechnology company wanted to take a risk and try something new to help stop the spread of Dengue. They came up with the idea to modify the genetic structure of the male Aedes mosquito; transforming it into a GMO that is capable of destroying its own species. This has never been attempted before but they are willing to do anything to try and help control the spread of Dengue. “There are always risks—that’s why we start with small studies in geographically isolated neighborhoods.” says Giovanini Coelho. People in the neighborhood of Juazeiro are heavily affected, and they are desperate for help. Many people are opposed to the OX513A because it is a man made species that unnamed scientist are releasing into the air with unknown consciences, but Brazilian citizens are willing to take that

Man can capture an elephant, train a lion, and totally obliterate a species from this earth. If man can do all that surely he will have dominion over something as small and meek as a mosquito. The Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 proved this notion to be false as this disease, transmitted solely by the bite of a female mosquito, wiped out one tenth of Philadelphia’s population in four months. Some make the mistake of seeing this as an isolated event but this epidemic was as far-reaching as the disease itself since it forever changed America’s Government, public health system and African American community.

On Wednesday August 24 protestors showed their dismay at the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District plans to release genetically modified mosquitoes into Key Haven, Florida, a small town in Key West, to try to control the quickly spreading Zika virus. The article “In Florida Keys, Some Worry About ‘Science and Government’ More Than Zika” written by Lizzette Alvarez talks about how the people of Key West, Florida feel about becoming a “science experiment”.

The united states had rubber stamped available this nuisance by means of 1958 however upset it is guard in addition to helped that to send back. This kind of thirty days the medical minister, Marcelo Castro, declared of which insect pest resilient will probably be dispersed to be able to 600, 000 pregnant ladies that get Bolsa Família, a new cash-transfer structure. A number of 310, 000 health and fitness staff are usually raising understanding in addition to instructing men and women how you can preserve mosquitoes away; upon February 13th 230, 000 soldiers may sign up for all of them. Following Globe Wellness Company recommendations, Brazil recommends females thinking about having a baby upon stay clear of having injured by means of mosquitoes. Women will need facts, not fertility

The new mosquitos contain a gene that produces high levels of a protein that stops their cells from functioning normally, ultimately killing them.” And “While similar releases in Florida are years away, some locals have already reacted forcefully. One activist gathered 100,000 signatures on a petition to oppose using the mosquitoes in eradication efforts.” But their concerns are ““What if these mosquitoes bite my boys or my dogs? What will they do to the ecosystem?”

Department of Health. (2009, April). Information Sheet: Malathion and Mosquito Control. Retrieved July 11, 2011, from New York State department of health: http://www.health.state.ny.us/publications/2740/

In Africa, An. gambiae and An. funestus are the two most efficient primary malaria vectors are which are anthropophilic, endophilic, endophagic, and late-night biting [13] In contrast, An. arabiensis, a species belonging to the same complex as An. gambiae, is more plastic in its behaviour, exhibiting more often zoophily, exophily, exophagy, and early night biting as compared to An. gambiae and An. funestus. However, different factors can influence the behaviour of the anophelines. This has been shown for An. gambiae in several study sites. A double choice experiment in Burkina Faso for example shows that 88% of An. gambiae choose for a human odour baited trap and only 12% for a cattle odour

One of the most striking dividing lines between realms is the Wallace Line between Australia and Asia. Because Australia is isolated from the Asian land mass its biodiversity is rich with different species and ecosystems. However, due to trade and human transport methods the highly adaptable and dispersive Aedes albopictus (typically native to Asia) has been located in the Torres Strait (between Papua New Guinea and Australia) with invasion to mainland Australia imminent. This r-strategist has adapted to different environments to promote egg fecundity and viability enabling it to spread further as well as being epidemiologically important threatening global health. This report aims to provide an insight into the species and aims to assess the current damage caused by the invasive Asian Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus) in the Torres Strait.

The autogeny is the ability of some species of mosquitoes to lay eggs without consuming blood, allowing them to maintain the species when they are not near hosts. In Aedes albopictus and Ae . aegypti have been reported autogenous strains of these species in different countries , but in Colombia is not yet have studies on the presence of this

While malaria infection is reduced by the relative inefficiency of Germany’s disease vectors, the precise opposite is true in Italy, especially in the coastal regions and in the south. In these areas, A. atroparvus gave way to two more dangerous Anopheles strains, A. sacharovi and A. labranchiae. Before A. sacharovi was driven out of Italy in the 20th century by anti-mosquito campaigns, it was endemic to both Sicily and the east coast of Italy, where its range stretched all the way to the mouth of the Po River delta. Unlike A. atroparvus, A. sacharovi is highly anthropophilic, meaning prefers human blood meals if available, and is thus a far more efficient malaria vector. The same is true for A. labranchiae, an aggressive biter of human beings,

All over the world the demand for food is increasing. The human population is anticipated to grow from six billion in 2000 to nine billion in 2050. Meat production is predicted to double within the same amount, as demand grows from rising wealth. Pastures and fodder already deplete seventy percent of all agricultural land, therefore increasing livestock production would need increasing agricultural land area at the expense of rain forests and different natural lands. Officers at the United Nations Food associated Agriculture Organization recently predicted that beef might become an extreme luxury item by 2050, like caviar, as a result of rising production prices. Edible insects have long been used by ethnic groups in Asia, Africa, Mexico and South America as cheap and sustainable sources of protein, and the major role of entomophagy in human food security is well-documented. Up to 2,086 species are consumed by 3,071 ethnic groups in 130 countries. While more attention is needed to fully assess the potential of edible insects, they provide a natural source of essential carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins and offer an opportunity to bridge the gap in protein consumption between poor and wealthy nations but also to lessen the Ecological footprint. Some argue that the combination of increasing land use pressure, climate change, and food grain shortages due to the use of corn as a biofuel feedstock will cause serious challenges for attempts to meet future

About 3.3 billion people, that is about half of the world’s population are at risk of contracting malaria (figure 1). Every year there are 250 million cases of malaria, and nearly 1 million deaths. That amounts to 2,732 deaths per day. Out of those million people that die every year, 800,000 of them are African children under the age of 5. To control malaria three actions need to be taken: insecticides need to be used to decrease the vector population, people have to be educated as to how to prevent the vector from reproducing, and anti-malarial drugs need to be distributed. To understand the vector and what the vector is, scientists had to first discover what the parasite was and how it worked. It was not until the year 1880 that French Physician Charles Laveran discovered that Malaria was caused by a protozoan in the genus Plasmodium (Malaria, 2013)