To be fair, I do not doubt that Wolbachia in Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus suppresses viruses. But here's the crucial point:
What happens when trillions of Wolbachia-infected Aedes males die or are consumed? And what about the eggs and larvae that will ALSO contain it?
Everything dies and is eventually "absorbed" by something else in nature. Wolbachia can survive (at least) a week in a dead host; ample time for other organisms and parasites to acquire (and spread) it.
When I viewed these WWF-Canada stats:
- Grassland birds dropped 69 per cent
- Aerial insectivores fell 51 per cent
- Shorebird populations declined by 43 per cent
Source: http://blog.wwf.ca/blog/2017/09/13/wildlife-specie...
And coupled that with this highly alarming statistic:
- Sperm counts have declined by more than half for Western men
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/sperm-count-declinin...
I thought: Wolbachia is infecting humans and mammals now and Culex are (in my mind) the most likely culprit. I also believe Wolbachia is working in tandem with Zika (a virus acting like a bacteriophage) hitching a ride to the gonads, heart, CNS, optic lobe and retina.
Bottom line: We need to demand that vertebrates (including humans) be tested for Wolbachia because there ARE treatment options.
If Wolbachia in Aedes is so safe, then WHY can't we test for it in vertebrate species that are suffering catastrophic breeding failures (including humans)?
Latest petition update: https://www.change.org/p/investigate-north-atlantic-right-whale-deaths-without-the-noaa-a-u-s-gov-t-agency/u/22019854
