The deadliest animal in the world isn’t the shark, bear or the human being.
It is the mosquito.
This past week, the Empire has published a series of stories on the spread of the Zika virus to Miami, where city officials have begun a mammoth chemical-spraying campaign to combat an outbreak of the virus that causes horrific birth defects.
Zika is warm milk compared to diseases like yellow fever, dengue and encephalitis.
Every year, mosquito-borne diseases kill 725,000 human beings, and another 200 million people are sickened, sometimes for days at a time.
There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes, but most feed on nectar, not blood. Only a handful of species bite human beings, and fewer still are the deadly culprits who spread disease.
In fact, just two species in particular — Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus — are responsible for most of the mosquito-borne harm today.
We believe it is possible and acceptable to drive these two species into extinction. Forever.
Already, human beings are driving thousands of plant and animal species toward extinction. In her 2014 book, “The Sixth Exinction,” former New York Times reporter Elizabeth Kolbert argues that human beings are causing the sixth great mass extinction since the Earth was created. We believe this destructive pattern can be harnessed for good.
The British biotechnology firm Oxitec has developed a genetically engineered Aedes aegypti that contains a secret flaw — any descendants of this mosquito will die before adulthood.
This modified mosquito has already been tested successfully in Brazil, Panama, and the Cayman Islands. In those tests, the modified insects reduced the population of Aedes aegypti by 90 percent.
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration gave its approval for deployment in the United States. It said a planned test in the Florida Keys, earmarked for November, will have “no significant impact” on the environment.
Even if this technique succeeds, it will not be a magic wand. Some mosquitoes will survive, and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District — the best-funded in the nation — will still have to use chemical sprays and spread a bacteria that infects (and kills) mosquitoes, just as it does today. Those sprays are indiscriminate; they have the potential to harm other wildlife and non-biting mosquitoes.
Genetic engineering is a scary thought for a lot of people. They’ve been trained by Hollywood that altering a gene is a thing to fear. That’s despite scientific studies that have never found any harm from consuming genetically-engineered crops or animals.
This newspaper has consistently opposed the deployment of a genetically engineered salmon, but we oppose it on economic grounds, not health grounds. We believe the engineered salmon is safe to eat but will harm Alaska’s natural salmon industry.
We are pro-salmon. No one is pro-mosquito.
The mosquito is a parasite that kills. We do not support the idea of killing all mosquitoes, but when it comes to the species that spread disease, we believe the benefits vastly outweigh the risks.
What has the world lost because so many have died of yellow fever or dengue? We’ll never know. How many unborn children will be harmed because of the Zika virus? We’re afraid we might soon know.
Chemical pesticides carry their own risks, and we can’t always carry around mosquito netting. Eradicating Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus makes sense.
This is not a matter of convenience. This is a matter of life or death.
