[afro-nets] IAEA To Use Nuclear Technology To Eradicate Malaria (4)

[Dr. Jasper Ijumba <jasperijumba@mail.com>]

IAEA To Use Nuclear Technology To Eradicate Malaria (4)
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Male mosquitoes bred in the lab at Ubwari Field Station of the
National Institute for Medical Research were taken to Tanga Tse
Tse Research Institute and irradiated (in order to destroy their
sperms). They were then taken back to Muheza and released at Ma-
goda village. On subsequent days, we would go back, capture fe-
male mosquitoes (from mating swarms) to see whether they con-
tained sperms from irradiated males. I hope you are aware that,
generally female mosquitoes mate once in their lifetime, and
that after mating, the male inserts a sperm plug, which prevents
other male mosquitoes from mating with her. As a result of this,
the female stores the sperms from the first mating in her sper-
matheca and uses them to fertilise subsequent egg batches.
Hence, if she mated with a sterile male, she would be unable to
fertilise any eggs and if you swamp the population with many
sterile males, then there would be a progressive decline in the
population of that species because the eggs laid would be nonvi-
able.

This has been shown to succeed under laboratory conditions but
it is very difficult in the wilderness because you need billions
and billions of sterile males, but the main problem is that
sterile males have been found to be less competitive than wild
types.

The experiment succeeded in Pemba (with Tse Tse flies) because
Tse Tse flies are not r-selected (do not reproduce in large num-
bers i.e. are not geared towards reproduction as a means of sur-
vival of the species). They are k-selected species.

Tse Tse flies produce one or two larvae after a number of days,
whereas a mosquito produces up to 240 eggs per batch and every
2-3 days!

I hope this will help you,

Jasper N Ijumba, PhD, (LLB Cand.)
Deputy Director, CEEMI
P.O. Box 9653
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Tel: +255-22-212-6531/2
Fax: +255-22-212-6530
Mobile: +255-744-361-597 / 748-361-597
mailto:jasperijumba@mail.com
mailto:Jasperijumba@hotmail.com