The mosquito genocide is beginning. Millions of genetically modified versions of the useless vampire insects are being prepared for release in Brazil. If all goes according to plan, the mosquitoes will have a huge sex party and begin to kill off all their natural counterparts.

The world’s “first and biggest factory” for genetically modified mosquitos is in Piracicaba, Brazil. Its owner, Oxitec, is manufacturing male mosquitos that die quickly after they mate and pass on a genetic defect that causes any offspring to kick the bucket as well. In a country that has been hit hard by the Zika virus and dengue, this could be a game-changing, life-saving effort.

The firm has conducted five field tests between 2011 and 2014 — the results showed a 90 percent decline in the population of wild Aedes aegypti after the horny, modded male mosquitos had time to get it on with unsuspecting female mosquitos.

Oxitec has yet to receive approval from Brazilian health authorities to release its devastating swarm into the wild. The town of Piracicaba is currently its only customer and the two have signed a four-year, US$1.1 million deal.

The factory can produce 60 million mosquitos a week and plans to release 10 million of them in Piracicaba the first week that it has approval. In a town with a population of 360,000, that’s a little over 27 mosquitos per person.

It’s truly unknown what kind of broader effect the systematic extinction of mosquitos would have on the eco-system. The little pests are generally believed to have no broader purpose than to survive and spread disease. But without long-term impact studies, it’s difficult to say whether or not the destruction of mosquito species would come without consequence.

That doesn’t seem to bother the researchers at Oxitec. “There are three essential factors for the transmission of these diseases: the mosquitoes, the virus and humans,” Oxitec biologist Karla Tepedino said. “What we do here is eliminate the mosquitoes, which transmit the virus.”

蚊虫大灭绝就要开始了。巴西正准备释放数百万转基因版本的无用吸血昆虫。如果一切按照计划进行，那么这些蚊虫将举行巨大的性派对并杀死它们所有的自然界的同伴。

这个世界上第一个也是最大的“转基因蚊虫工厂”位于巴西皮拉西卡巴，其所有者Oxitec正在制造在交配后就会迅速死亡的雄性蚊虫，这些转基因雄性蚊虫能够将致命的遗传缺陷传给后代，它们的后代也会一命呜呼。在一个受到寨卡病毒和登革热肆虐的国家，这一举措将改变现状，拯救生命。

该公司在2011年至2014年期间在五个地方进行了测试，测试结果表明这种性欲强的转基因雄性蚊虫被释放后与不知情的雌性蚊虫交配，导致野生埃及伊蚊的数量下降了百分之九十。

Oxitec还未得到巴西卫生总局的许可将这种毁灭性的昆虫释放到野外。现在皮拉西卡巴是它唯一的顾客，双方已签署了为期四年、价值110万美元的订单。

该公司一周能够生产六千万只蚊虫，并计划在获得卫生许可后的第一周将一千万只转基因雄性蚊虫释放到皮拉西卡巴。在这个有着三十六万人口的地方，每个人对应27只蚊虫。

目前尚不明确这种有计划有步骤灭绝蚊虫的行动会给生态系统带来怎样的影响。通常认为蚊虫这种小害虫除了生存和传播疾病之外对生态环境没有其它影响。可是因为没有研究过长期影响，科学家们很难断言摧毁蚊虫这个物种是否不会带来任何后果。

Oxitec的研究人员似乎并不操心这事。Oxitec的生物学家卡拉•特皮迪诺表示：“疾病的传播有三种重要因素：蚊虫、病毒和人类。我们现在做的是消灭传播疾病的蚊虫。”

(Chinadaily.com.cn)

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

    【改装的】gǎizhuāng de modded modified to improve performance

    【消灭】xiāomiè eliminate remove or get rid of, especially as being in some way undesirable