Re:Africa declared free of wild polio
by rrrrrrrrrrrryan on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @07:49PM
(#24277603)
I've read that some bird populations might suffer, but even ecologists will admit that mosquitos aren't particularly vital to any one species, and the elimination of mosquitos as a primary disease vector may even be a net-positive for the animal world.
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On top of that, only a small number of mosquito species carry malaria or dengue. Granted, I'm not sure how well we've studied cross-species fertility in mosquitoes (and thus risk of genetic solutions jumping the species barrier), but if we're able to very selectively exterminate this small number of species, my understanding is that the remaining mosquito species would expand to fill any ecological gaps.