fight Malaria with "Mosquito feeders" ?

[Widdekind]

Biomedical animator Drew Barry states that mosquitoes are normally vegetarians, and only pregnant female mosquitoes drink blood; and only for "special nutrients". Perhaps people could construct "mosquito feeders", that "smelled like animals", and contained said special nutrients, so that the mosquitoes would be attracted to the bait, over actual people ?

 

[Appolinaria]

Which would matter if milk production were morally different from meat production.

Cows only give milk because they recently had calves.

You can slaughter the calves and eat them or you can slaughter the calves and not eat them. Whether or not you choose to fatten them up before killing them doesn't matter much- they are bred to die.

 

You don't get a lot of milk unless you have a meat industry.

 

I forgot to mention this aspect of food poisoning earlier.

http://en.wikipedia....Bacillus_cereus

 

 

some questions.

 

 

1. Surely, at least one of the mosquitoes drawn to this bait would be infected, and might possibly transfer disease to the bait. It would turn into a cesspool, where EVERY pregnant mosquito would be guaranteed to transmit a disease.

 

 

 

 

2. If the bait is poisoned, then a lot of pregnant mosquitoes would die, dwindling the population very quickly. And how would this affect the ecosystem?

 

 

 

 

3. If the bait isn't poisoned, then perhaps a lot more mosquitos would survive than now. I'm sure a lot die because they can't find a supplier of blood. This might encourage their survival. There would be a lot more mosquitos flying around, some would surely find humans regardless, and we might just end up infecting more humans anyway.

 

 

[John Cuthber]

At the moment the post above this one reads

"John Cuthber, on 7 March 2012 - 08:43 PM, said:

Which would matter if milk production were morally different from meat production.

Cows only give milk because they recently had calves.

You can slaughter the calves and eat them or you can slaughter the calves and not eat them. Whether or not you choose to fatten them up before killing them doesn't matter much- they are bred to die.

 

You don't get a lot of milk unless you have a meat industry.

 

I forgot to mention this aspect of food poisoning earlier.

http://en.wikipedia....Bacillus_cereus

 

 

 

some questions.

 

 

1. Surely, at least one of the mosquitoes drawn to this bait would be infected, and might possibly transfer disease to the bait. It would turn into a cesspool, where EVERY pregnant mosquito would be guaranteed to transmit a disease.

 

 

 

 

2. If the bait is poisoned, then a lot of pregnant mosquitoes would die, dwindling the population very quickly. And how would this affect the ecosystem?

 

 

 

 

3. If the bait isn't poisoned, then perhaps a lot more mosquitos would survive than now. I'm sure a lot die because they can't find a supplier of blood. This might encourage their survival. There would be a lot more mosquitos flying around, some would surely find humans regardless, and we might just end up infecting more humans anyway.

"

 

 

Is it just me, or does that qualify for the non sequiteur of the week award?

[Appolinaria]

HAHA what in the hell!

 

 

.... just... ignore that... I don't know what happened here....

[John Cuthber]

Having said that, the questions you raise are perfectly valid.

What would really be neat would be to add some sort of anti malarial, or better yet a vaccine, to the feeder.

[Appolinaria]

Having said that, the questions you raise are perfectly valid.

What would really be neat would be to add some sort of anti malarial, or better yet a vaccine, to the feeder.

 

Would that be more beneficial than just giving the vaccine to infected humans and doing away with the feeders?

[John Cuthber]

Until we have a vaccine the point is moot.

 

It may be possible to make some sort of vaccine that works for the insects but not people. In addition it might be easier to vaccinate lots of insects that don't have other things to do and/ or the total quantity of vaccine might be smaller and cheaper.

[Appolinaria]

Until we have a vaccine the point is moot.

 

It may be possible to make some sort of vaccine that works for the insects but not people. In addition it might be easier to vaccinate lots of insects that don't have other things to do and/ or the total quantity of vaccine might be smaller and cheaper.

 

Ah, I see. Good point.

[hypervalent_iodine]

Vaccines, IIRC, are difficult for malaria because of their innate immune defense mechanisms which results in an incomplete response by the host. There's also the issue of short generation time, which gives rise to the ability to develop multi-drug resistance and the fact that the antigens displayed by an individual parasite can differ to those displayed by another quite wildly. The latter is certainly true when you compare individuals at different stages of their life cycle, but is also true when comparing individuals from the same stage. As well, single-antigen vaccines haven't proven particularly efficacious (I think as a result of the development cycle of the parasite), so development of a vaccine requires selection of multiple antigens within the same formula (i.e. a subunit vaccine). So you're having to design a complicated vaccine to work against a parasite with a complicated life cycle and a complicated response to the host immune system. It makes life rather difficult.

[too-open-minded]

I like this idea although theirs alot of water on this planet, mosquitos breed in water.

 

how long can we feed the growing mosquito population before they run out of food and have to eat something else

 

Sometimes you make small problems bigger by trying to fix them, ever picked a scab thats not healed?

Edited July 13, 2012 by too-open-minded