Look beyond transgenic techniques that add new genes to a species. People have used selective breeding techniques to change plants and animals for millennia – why not try them on mosquitoes?
They spread disease and misery and account for millions of deaths every year. There’s not a lot to be said for mosquitoes.
The link between microcephaly in unborn children and Zika hasn’t been definitely confirmed, but vaccine development is a top priority.
Percio Campos/EPA
We monitor mosquitoes to help predict and control virus outbreaks. And a new technique for collecting mosquito saliva from the field has made the process both more sensitive and inexpensive.
The UK’s recent heatwave is perfect for mosquito breeding but something far more dangerous may be coming.
An historian reading the government White Paper on developing northern Australia will realise we’re actually heading all the way back to the 1890s.
andrew matthews/Flickr
The federal government’s recent White Paper on developing northern Australia has disturbing echoes of the 1890s, a time when unbridled capitalism and indentured labour developed the North.
A global killer – we need to use all the resources we can get.
CDC Global
An Australian native mosquito has for the first time been detected in urban California, in the latest wave of mozzies hitching rides to new destinations. While it is unlikely to pose a significant health…
The US is on the brink of a new virus epidemic; a virus that wasn’t there ten years ago but which is now worrying officials. Chikungunya, which causes an incapacitating fever, is spread via Aedes mosquitoes…
Australian travellers are increasingly returning home infected with mosquito-borne diseases.
Flickr:hkroeger28
Football fever may not be the only thing spreading when hundreds of thousands of sports fans converge on Brazil for the FIFA World Cup this June and July. Mass events such as the Olympic and Commonwealth…
A primary carrier of the Chikungunya virus, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) could easily hop to mainland Australia from Torres Strait islands.
Camponotus Vagus
Chikungunya is a virus transmitted to people by mosquitoes; it usually causes a non-fatal but debilitating illness. Despite thousands of people being infected each year in Africa, Asia and Melanesia, chikungunya…