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Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#31

Post by trhway »

JshWright wrote: post #25
runeks wrote: post #17

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damag…

I assume this works because the mosquitoes don't want to get eaten. Unless this somehow causes chickens to evolve to no longer eat mosquitoes, it seems unlikely this effect would diminish over time.

chicken actually eating, ie. killing mosquitoes, suggests similar technical solution - like miniature anti-aircraft weapon consisting of small laser and either camera or radar (like Google's recently demonstrated 60GHz penny sized one) which one would hang over the bed. By focusing laser right at the position of the mosquito it can be pretty safe for humans around. Can be a tool against flies too.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#32

Post by mrob »

taco_emoji wrote: post #27
cronjobber wrote: post #18

> the compounds from the smell of the chicken can be extracted and could work as a repellent Might actually work as long as only a statistically insignificant minority of ppl is using it. After that point, it's Darwin all over again.

Only if "not being repelled by chicken smells" conferred a large enough selective advantage over "being repelled by chicken smells". Mosquitoes have plenty of other animals to bite besides humans, so it's not immediately apparent that it would change selection pressures at all, much less to the degree needed to push the population genotype in one direction or the other.

The most dangerous malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, does selectively target humans. See:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.0269-283x.2002....

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#33

Post by Iv »

runeks wrote: post #17

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damag…

Sooner or later, sure. But mosquito coils use the same compounds since at least 100 years and still are pretty effective.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#34

Post by swsieber »

mrob wrote: post #32
taco_emoji wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if "not being repelled by chicken smells" conferred a large enough selective advantage over "being repelled by chicken smells". Mosquitoes have plenty of other animals to bite besides humans, so it's not immediately apparent that it would change selection pressures at all, much less to the degree needed to push the population genotype in one direction or the other.

The most dangerous malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, does selectively target humans. See: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.0269-283x.2002....

We just need to breed a bunch if genetically modified chickens that produce L-lactic then, and we'll be set (if we use chicken odor as a repellant).

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#35

Post by trombone »

JshWright wrote: post #8
mabbo wrote: post #3

Mosquitoes would only avoid something if being near it made them less likely to reproduce successfully. Seeing that, we've decided to surround ourselves with those things. This concerns me a little.

Chickens are not known for their predation of humans...

That's what the chickens want you to think

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#36

Post by HillaryBriss »

kovrik wrote: post #28

Bill Gates fights against malaria ( http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Health/Mala... ), then he says that he would raise chickens ( https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-Would-Raise-Chi... )...he knew!

... that chickens are the only medicine strong enough to save humanity

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#37

Post by runeks »

runeks wrote: post #26
runeks wrote: post #17

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damag…

While looking for a different paper, which shows that mosquitos can adapt to certain repellents, I discovered that the paper from above has been retracted: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu... I will post a link to the other paper if I find it.

Here's the paper.

Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes Exhibit Decreased Repellency by DEET following Previous Exposure: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

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