Chikungunya is a relatively rare form of viral fever caused by an alphavirus that is spread by mosquito bites from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, though recent research by the Pasteur Institute in Paris claims the virus has suffered a mutation that enables it to be transmitted by Aedes albopictus (Tiger mosquito). This was the cause of the plague in the Indian Ocean and a threat to the Mediterranean coast at present, requiring urgent meetings of health officials in the region.
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Setback for anti-malaria mosquitoes - Telegraph
Scientists who developed genetically altered mosquitoes to combat malaria admit today that they have suffered a setback.

Mosquito strains engineered to attack and kill the malaria parasite could offer a new way to fight a disease that infects up to 300 million people a year, killing about one million, mostly children.

However, a laboratory study has found that current lines of GM mosquitoes do not compete well against normal mosquitoes, and the introduced genes disappear within 16 generations.

Nevertheless, the team from Imperial College London and University of Perugia, Italy, says GM mosquitoes still offer hope against malaria.

The team reports today in the journal Science that the most likely cause of the problems is inbreeding created through crossing the descendants of a single transformed individual, and that the introduced gene is likely to become associated with one or more deleterious mutations.

A possible solution is to use breeding strategies that avoid inbreeding and to release larger populations of modified insects to ensure survival of adequate numbers.
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Avian influenza (also bird flu) is the collective term for influenza from viruses adapted to birds. Sometimes the term is mistakenly used to refer to specific Influenza A subtypes, or to the specific viruses that cause the disease (see Virus versus disease).

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Featherless chicken
Scientists at the genetics faculty at the Rehovot Agronomy Institute near Tel Aviv, Israel have created a mostly featherless chicken by cross breeding a broiler (which are the big, meaty ones) with a species that has a featherless neck. The idea behind the de-velopment of this ugly thang is that it will create a more 'convenient' and energy efficient chicken which can live in warm countries where feathered chickens don't do well and cooling systems are too expensive to be commonly affordable.
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My question is could these and other similar experiments be the cause of the above mentioned diseases?

Thanks all in advance for your inputs.:)

Yuck to the featherless chicken. There are something's genetics should leave alone. Mutations of mosquitos does not speak well of progress either. When you change something in the kingdom, there always seems to be an offset somewhere else.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, firm. Please excuse me :)

Hi Cap,
I was just wondering...

There are so many new types of diseases among livestock,could this be due to the chemicals we are feeding them to make them more consumer friendly.
Or I should use the word "profitable" .

There's Mad Cow, Foot and Mouth, Avian flu and then there's chikungunya through mosquitos.

I know there has been diseases like plagues etc through the ages, but now it seems that there is rarely a time when we have a break from these diseases.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this...

Thanks

Bacteria and viruses will evolve to take control of new weaknesses. All we are doing is speeding up the natural pace of things. By "evolving" our livestock through selective breeding, genetic engineering or chemical treatments, we are just opening up natural weaknesses along with the strengths.

Evolution can happen very fast and I think that's probably what we are seeing, bacteria evolving to take advantage of new routes for infection.

That makes sense.

What do you see as a solution that would work long term for this fast paced evolution we are assisting and which in turn is leading to more problems than good.

I don't think that it is leading to more problems than good.

The mutant mosquito is not a new idea, it has been developed to attenuate the spread malaria.
Science Museum | Antenna Science News | GM mozzies bred to fight malaria
I don't think it has been implemented yet but fingers crossed will be soon.

I think it appears that there are more diseases because there is more report of them. Instead of just hearing how Mr Jones down the road had a barn full of sick chickens we can now find out about China, Asia and Africa. Therefore we hear about more incidents than we could have previously.

Also knowledge is greater we know why things have died. Before it wouldn't have been put down to anything other than bad luck or an angry God. Therefore we can make connections and find patterns which can increase our perception of risk

If anything the increase (if there indeed is one) will not be down to the biological sciences but due to increased technology which has increased communication between areas of the globe previously isolated - for example with SARs planes were spreading the infection.

Also an increase in high intensity farming (nothing to do with genetic manipulation) will also increase the impact of any disease in one area as there are more livestock to be affected.

I don't think a few lab experiments and scientific musing are increasing diseases. Foot and Mouth, influenza and other diseases have been around for centuries. It just seems like there are more now because you hear about them and we know what they are.

Cap,
Could you explain the good and the bad of evolution of the weaknesses in animals due to "induced" evolution.
These weaknesses to me as a layman seems to be causing problems in the animal's health and well being which in turn is effecting human consumers of these products.
Am I wrong in my thinking?Or am I assuming too much?

I ask because this chikungunya and the avian flu seems to be spreading like wildfire in many Asian countries and even the doctors are not sure what to do, and I was just thinking of all the possibilities for healthy animals to get sick so quickly and for mosquitos to be getting stronger (would that be due to the insecticides and pesticides we use on them?).

Thanks

"templelane"
"I don't think a few lab experiments and scientific musing are increasing diseases. Foot and Mouth, influenza and other diseases have been around for centuries. It just seems like there are more now because you hear about them and we know what they are."

You sure make sense.
The world has become one global community and all of us seeing the results of advanced technology in action.
We are more aware of what,where,when and how a disease is spreading.