{"id":756236,"date":"2019-02-18T09:11:31","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T14:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=756236"},"modified":"2019-02-18T09:11:31","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T14:11:31","slug":"playing-with-god-are-gm-mosquitoes-the-only-way-to-wipe-out-malaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=756236","title":{"rendered":"Playing with God: Are GM mosquitoes the only way to wipe out malaria?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<blockquote  class=\"bs-quote bs-quote-1 bsq-t1 bsq-s1 bsq-left\">\n\t\t<div class=\"quote-content\">\n\t\t\t<p>Environmentalists warn that removing even one species could disrupt the whole ecosystem in unforeseeable ways. AG is an important pollinator without which the flora and fauna where it lives could change dramatically.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>SOPHIE ARIE:<\/strong> <em>&#8216;Target Malaria, the name of the Imperial College-led research consortium, is just one of many projects exploring ways to engineer mosquitoes so that they stop spreading disease. But unlike so-called \u2018self-limiting\u2019 genetic modification of mosquitoes \u2013 which, for example, renders them infertile or produce infertile offspring \u2013 gene drive works by unleashing a mutated gene that spreads rapidly through the species. Once it is released it can\u2019t be stopped. \u201cIf it works, it will eliminate a whole species,\u201d says Dr Wakeford, an honorary associate professor at the University of Exeter&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>But as the scientists edge closer to releasing gene drive mosquitoes into the wild for the first time \u2013 by 2024 in Burkina Faso \u2013 environmental and human rights groups and others are desperate to slow the process down. Playing God in this way, they warn, could do infinitely more harm than good. \u201cGene drives are a complete unknown,\u201d says Tom Wakeford, UK spokesperson for ETC, a global campaign group monitoring the impact of emerging technologies on biodiversity, agriculture and human rights. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge risk when we know that other approaches [to eradicating malaria] exist,\u201d he adds&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Environmentalists warn that removing even one species could disrupt the whole ecosystem in unforeseeable ways. Anopheles gambiae could be an important food source and pollinator without which the flora and fauna where it lives could change dramatically. \u201cThere are agrarian communities [where gene drive research is taking place]. If their crops are affected, that\u2019s their livelihoods, their health, everything,&#8221; says Dr Wakeford&#8230; Although the chances are slim, it is also possible that a gene drive mosquito, once in the wild, could travel long distances or cross with another organism to produce something entirely new&#8217;.<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/0\/gm-mosquitoes-playing-god-way-wipe-malaria\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>SOURCE&#8230;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nD_1noCf2x8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SOPHIE ARIE: &#8216;Target Malaria, the name of the Imperial College-led research consortium, is just one of many projects exploring ways to engineer mosquitoes so that they stop spreading disease. But unlike so-called \u2018self-limiting\u2019 genetic modification of mosquitoes \u2013 which, for example, renders them infertile or produce infertile offspring \u2013 gene drive works by unleashing a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":756237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17,18,24,25],"tags":[27,29,32,37],"class_list":["post-756236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-ethics","category-science","category-welfare","tag-cruelty","tag-experimentation","tag-free-living","tag-speciesism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=756236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":756238,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756236\/revisions\/756238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/756237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=756236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=756236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=756236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}