Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 15: A national level workshop was organized under the leadership of Dr JP Sharma, Vice chancellor SKUAST-Jammu in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
The workshop was conducted by Dr Anees Yadav, National Professor ICAR under SERB Programme.
In an invited lecture on genetically modified mosquitoes, Dr RK Gupta, Professor and Head Entomology, deliberated that Insect-borne diseases cause significant economic losses in countries where they are endemic and approximately half of the world’s population is at risk of contracting insect-borne diseases.
“These vector-borne diseases account for more than 17 per cent of all infectious diseases, causing more than 7,00,000 deaths annually. They can be caused by parasites, bacteria or viruses”, he said and disclosed that there were estimated 219 million malaria cases worldwide which result in more than 4,00,000 deaths each year.
Since, there are currently no vaccines and current conventional disease-control programmes have failed to manage them effectively, these have continued to spread and resurge. However, Genetically Modified (GM) insects which are produced by inserting new genes into their genome hold great potential. Dr RK Gupta emphasised that this innovative approach is based upon self-limiting population suppression mechanisms that include sterile insect technique and Release of Insects carrying Adominant Lethal (RIDL). This RIDL technique involves genetic improvement of the SIT whereby lethal gene is inserted into the insects using transgenic technology, a non-toxic, lethal protein (tTAV) that allows larval development but prevents RIDL insect progeny from reaching adulthood. When they mate with wild insects, the lethal gene is passed down to the offspring, causing them to die.
Dr Gupta shared that the recent field trials based upon Oxitech RIDL technique gene are under progress in Florida, Cayman Island and Brazil and a suppression level of about 95% has been achieved so far. The use of genetically modified mosquitoes thus holds a wide potential to eradicate the vector born diseases all over the world in future, he stated.
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