Genetically modified mosquitoes Malaysia

SCHOOL OF ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

DIPLOMA IN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Name : Aiman Syahmi B. Salim

Student ID : SCM020300

Lecturer : Mrs. Nurul Ashikin

Mosquitoes with newly expressed characteristics.

New characters - as a result of manipulation of DNA

Changes – passed on the next generation

In 1937, by entomologist, Edward F. Knipling

Started with sterilization of screw wormflies of Screw

worm flies, a serious pest of livestock.

Begins with mosquito eggs.

inject very small amounts of DNA into the end of a mosquito egg.

The new DNA will be taken up by the mosquito’s cells and will be cut and pasted into the mosquito’s own genome.

Developed by Malaysia's Institute for Medical Research (IMR).

In collaboration with the UK-based biotech company OXITEC.

Called by a name OX513A

total of 4,000–6,000 male GM Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes

released in Bentong, Pahang and Alor Gajah, Malacca.

along with a similar number of unmodified male mosquitoes.

The released sterile males compete with their wild

male counterparts for available wild female mating

partners.

Matings between OX513A sterile males and fertile wild

females produce no viable offspring.

Successive releases quickly cause a crash in the

population level.

if the gene persists in the population, then no further

interventions would be needed, and diseases could be

driven toward eradication.

Benefit public health.

Provide new forms of economically useful insects.

Might have unforeseen consequences, such as the inadvertent creation of uncontrollable mutated mosquitoes.

Ecosystem then filled by another insect species, potentially introducing new diseases.

There is no absolute guarantee that only male GM mosquitoes will be released which means here could be mechanical or human error. Since it is the female mosquitoes that bite humans and may transmit disease, this is a concern.

If the GM Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are reduced in number in the long-term, there may be an increase in another mosquito species, Aedes albopictus, which also transmits dengue as well as chikungunya in Malaysia.

AEDES AEGYPTI

AEDES ALBOPICTUS