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Proposals to eradicate mosquitoes

Some biologists have proposed the deliberate extinction of certain mosquito species. Biologist Olivia Judson has advocated " specicide " of thirty mosquito species by introducing a genetic element which can insert itself into another crucial gene, to create recessive " knockout genes ". She says that the Anopheles mosquitoes (which spread malaria) and Aedes mosquitoes (which spread dengue fever, yellow fever, elephantiasis, zika, and other diseases) represent only 30 out of some 3,500 mosquito species; eradicating these would save at least one million human lives per year, at a cost of reducing the genetic diversity of the family Culicidae by 1%. She further argues that since species become extinct "all the time" the disappearance of a few more will not destroy the ecosystem: "We're not left with a wasteland every time a species vanishes. Removing one species sometimes causes shifts in the populations of other species—but different need not mean worse." In addition, anti-malarial and mosquito control programs offer little realistic hope to the 300 million people in developing nations who will be infected with acute illnesses each year. Although trials are ongoing, she writes that if they fail: "We should consider the ultimate swatting."