Hadyn Parry: Re-engineering mosquitos to fight disease

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: Yale Yin 校对人员: Shan Zhao

So I'd like to start by focusing on

我想从

the world's most dangerous animal.

这个世界上最危险的动物开始说起。

Now, when you talk about dangerous animals,

当你说到最危险的动物时，

most people might think of lions or tigers or sharks.

大多数人们可能想到了狮子，老虎或者鲨鱼。

But of course the most dangerous animal

但事实上世界上最危险的动物

is the mosquito.

是蚊子。

The mosquito has killed more humans

蚊子造成的死亡人数

than any other creature in human history.

比其他任何一种动物造成的死亡都要多。

In fact, probably adding them all together,

实际上，把其他所有动物杀死的人类数目加起来，

the mosquito has killed more humans.

都比不上蚊子杀死人类的数量。

And the mosquito has killed more humans than wars

因为蚊子而死亡的人，甚至比因为战争

and plague.

和瘟疫而死亡的人还多。

And you would think, would you not,

你可能认为，

that with all our science, with all our advances in society,

随着科学的进步，随着社会的前行，

with better towns, better civilizations, better sanitation,

城镇环境变得更好，人们养成更好的生活习惯，卫生条件越来越优越，

wealth, that we would get better at controlling mosquitos,

社会越来越富裕，我们能更好的控制蚊子，

and hence reduce this disease.

并以此减少疾病的发生。

And that's not really the case.

但是，实际情况并非如此

If it was the case, we wouldn't have

如果真的是那样，

between 200 and 300 million cases of malaria every year,

就不会每年有2亿到3亿人受到疟疾的侵扰；

and we wouldn't have

也不会

a million and a half deaths from malaria,

有一百五十万人死于疟疾；

and we wouldn't have a disease

也不会让一种

that was relatively unknown 50 years ago

50年前我们还几乎一无所知的疾病

now suddenly turned into

突然变成今天的

the largest mosquito-borne virus threat that we have,

最大病毒威胁，而这种病毒是由蚊子传播的；

and that's called dengue fever.

这种疾病叫做登革热。

So 50 years ago, pretty much no one had heard of it,

五十年前，几乎没人听说过登革热，

no one certainly in the European environment.

至少在欧洲没人听说过这种疾病。

But dengue fever now, according to the World Health Organization,

而据世界卫生组织报道，

infects between 50 and 100 million people every year,

如今每年有5千万到1亿人感染登革热，

so that's equivalent to the whole of the population

这相当于

of the U.K. being infected every year.

整个英国的人口数量。

Other estimates put that number at roughly double

还有人估计每年登革热的感染人数

that number of infections.

是这个数字的两倍。

And dengue fever has grown in speed quite phenomenally.

如今登革热蔓延得很快，

In the last 50 years, the incidence of dengue

在过去的50年中，登革热

has grown thirtyfold.

的发病率增长了三十倍。

Now let me tell you a little bit about what dengue fever is,

我来解释一下什么是登革热，

for those who don't know.

以防有人不了解这种疾病。

Now let's assume you go on holiday.

现在我们假设你要去度假了，

Let's assume you go to the Caribbean,

你可能会去加勒比海沿岸，

or you might go to Mexico. You might go to Latin America,

又或者你会去墨西哥，或者拉丁美洲，

Asia, Africa, anywhere in Saudi Arabia.

亚洲，非洲，阿拉伯世界的的某个地方。

You might go to India, the Far East.

你也可能去印度，远东地区。

It doesn't really matter. It's the same mosquito,

这都不重要。那里都有同一种蚊子，

and it's the same disease. You're at risk.

和同一种疾病。你都可能患病。

And let's assume you're bitten by a mosquito

假设你被一只

that's carrying that virus.

携带登革热病毒的蚊子咬了一口。

Well, you could develop flu-like symptoms.

接着你会出现类似感冒的症状，

They could be quite mild.

这些症状可能都很轻。

You could develop nausea, headache,

你会觉得头疼，恶心，

your muscles could feel like they're contracting,

肌肉酸痛，似乎肌肉都收缩起来，

and you could actually feel like your bones are breaking.

你觉得你的骨头疼得像要断了。

And that's the nickname given to this disease.

这是登革热的另一个名称的由来。

It's called breakbone fever,

它又被成为断骨热（也称骨痛热症）。

because that's how you can feel.

因为这就是疾病让你感受到的。

Now the odd thing is, is that once you've been bitten

而奇怪的是，你一旦被一只

by this mosquito, and you've had this disease,

携带登革热病毒的蚊子咬了，你患上了这种疾病，

your body develops antibodies,

你的身体会产生抗体，

so if you're bitten again with that strain,

如果以后你再被携带同一种病毒的蚊子咬了一口，

it doesn't affect you.

你不会再次被感染。

But it's not one virus, it's four,

但是登革热的病毒不止一种，而是四种，

and the same protection that gives you the antibodies

而如果你身体里有了一种登革热病毒的抗体，

and protects you from the same virus that you had before

抗体会保护你不再被这同一种病毒感染，

actually makes you much more susceptible to the other three.

然而这种抗体却会让你更容易感染上其他三种登革热病毒。

So the next time you get dengue fever,

于是，下一次如果你再遇上登革热，

if it's a different strain, you're more susceptible,

而且还是与上次不同的病毒，而你因为身体里的抗体而变得更容易感染，

you're likely to get worse symptoms,

你这次的症状很可能比上次严重得多，

and you're more likely to get the more severe forms,

而且这次侵染你的病毒可能也比上次厉害得多，

hemorrhagic fever or shock syndrome.

你可能患上登革出血热，或者登革休克综合征。

So you don't want dengue once,

所以你一次都不想患上登革热，

and you certainly don't want it again.

你更加不想第二次患上它。

So why is it spreading so fast?

为什么登革热蔓延得这么快？

And the answer is this thing.

答案就是这种蚊子。

This is Aedes aegypti.

这是埃及伊蚊。

Now this is a mosquito that came, like its name suggests,

就像它的名字里说的，这种蚊子来自

out of North Africa, and it's spread round the world.

非洲北部，现在已经遍布全球。

Now, in fact, a single mosquito will only travel

实际上，一只蚊子一生中只会

about 200 yards in its entire life. They don't travel very far.

飞行200码（约183米）。它们飞不了多远。

What they're very good at doing is hitchhiking,

但它们很擅长搭便车，

particularly the eggs.

特别是它们的卵。

They will lay their eggs in clear water, any pool, any puddle,

它们把卵产在干净的水里，池塘，小水坑，

any birdbath, any flower pot,

水盆，浇花的水壶，

anywhere there's clear water, they'll lay their eggs,

任何有干净的水的地方，它们都可以产卵，

and if that clear water is near freight, it's near a port,

如果这些水恰好就在待运的货物旁边，或是临近港口，

if it's anywhere near transport,

或者在任何交通工具的旁边，

those eggs will then get transported around the world.

这些卵就会随着它们传播到世界的任何地方。

And that's what's happened. Mankind has transported

这就是登革热迅速蔓延的原因，人类

these eggs all the way around the world,

使这些卵得以周游世界。

and these insects have infested over 100 countries,

这种蚊子已经传播到了一百多个国家

and there's now 2.5 billion people living in countries

这些国家里居住着25亿人口，

where this mosquito resides.

这种蚊子就在他们身边

To give you just a couple of examples

举几个例子

how fast this has happened,

来看看这种蔓延有多快。

in the mid-'70s, Brazil declared, "We have no Aedes aegypti,"

70年代中期，巴西宣称：“巴西没有埃及伊蚊”

and currently they spend about a billion dollars now

如今他们每年要花十亿美元

a year trying to get rid of it, trying to control it,

灭蚊，试图控制蚊子的数量，

just one species of mosquito.

仅仅为了一种蚊子。

Two days ago, or yesterday, I can't remember which,

两天前，或者是昨天，我记不太清楚哪一天，

I saw a Reuters report that said

我看到一则路透社的报道称

Madeira had had their first cases of dengue,

马德拉发现了首例登革热

about 52 cases, with about 400 probable cases.

约有52例确诊，400人疑似患病。

That's two days ago.

这是两天前的消息。

Interestingly, Madeira first got the insect in 2005,

有意思的是，马德拉首次发现埃及伊蚊是在2005年

and here we are, a few years later,

而如今，几年以后

first cases of dengue.

就发现了第一例登革热病例。

So the one thing you'll find is that where the mosquito goes,

所以你会发现，这种蚊子到了哪里，

dengue will follow.

登革热就随之而来。

Once you've got the mosquito in your area,

一旦在你所在的地区有这种蚊子，

anyone coming into that area with dengue,

任何一个携带登革热病毒的人进入了这一地区

mosquito will bite them, mosquito will bite somewhere else,

蚊子都可能咬到他/她，然后蚊子也可能咬到其他人，

somewhere else, somewhere else,

再咬到其他人，再咬到更多人，

and you'll get an epidemic.

于是你这个地区就会爆发流行病。

So we must be good at killing mosquitos.

所以我们必须很好的灭蚊。

I mean, that can't be very difficult.

我的意思是，这不应该是一件非常困难的事情。

Well, there's two principle ways.

除蚊主要有两种方法。

The first way is that you use larvicides.

一种方法是使用杀幼虫剂。

You use chemicals. You put them into water where they breed.

你可以使用化学药品，把药品倒进蚊子产卵的水域。

Now in an urban environment, that's extraordinarily difficult.

但在城市里，这非常困难。

You've got to get your chemical into every puddle,

你得把化学杀虫剂倒进每个水坑，

every birdbath, every tree trunk.

每个水盆，每个树干的空洞，

It's just not practical.

这太不实际了。

The second way you can do it

另一种可行的方法

is actually trying to kill the insects as they fly around.

是杀死飞来飞去的成虫。

This is a picture of fogging.

这是一张雾化的相片。

Here what someone is doing

这也是现在人们采取的措施，

is mixing up chemical in a smoke

他们用烟雾把化学药品混合起来

and basically spreading that through the environment.

然后使之弥漫到到整个空间。

You could do the same with a space spray.

你也可以用喷雾器来喷洒。

This is really unpleasant stuff,

这真是让人很不舒服的一件事。

and if it was any good, we wouldn't have this massive increase

然而如果这种方式有效，蚊子的数目就不会增长得这么快，

in mosquitos and we wouldn't have this massive increase in dengue fever.

登革热也不会蔓延得这么迅速。

So it's not very effective, but it's probably

虽然这些方法不是很有效，但这些

the best thing we've got at the moment.

是我们现阶段最好的灭蚊方法了。

Having said that, actually, your best form of protection

说完了这些，事实上，对你和我来说，最有效的保护措施

and my best form of protection is a long-sleeve shirt

还是一件长袖衬衫

and a little bit of DEET to go with it.

和一点点的避蚊胺。

So let's start again. Let's design a product,

现在让我们一起来设计一个灭蚊产品，

right from the word go, and decide what we want.

就从我们现在所知道的，来决定我们想要怎样的产品。

Well we clearly need something that is effective

我们很清楚地知道有些措施可以

at reducing the mosquito population.

有效的减少蚊子的数量。

There's no point in just killing the odd mosquito here and there.

这里杀几只蚊子，那里杀几只蚊子的措施是毫无意义的。

We want something that gets that population right the way down

我们想要的是使整个蚊子种群的数量降下来，

so it can't get the disease transmission.

从而使疾病无法传播。

Clearly the product you've got has got to be safe to humans.

很明显，这种产品必须对人类无害

We are going to use it in and around humans.

我们会在人群中使用这一产品

It has to be safe.

它必须是安全无害的。

We don't want to have a lasting impact on the environment.

我们也不希望这种产品对环境有长期的影响。

We don't want to do anything that you can't undo.

我们不希望做任何有永久性伤害的事情。

Maybe a better product comes along in 20, 30 years.

也许在未来20到30年内会出现这样一种更好的产品。

Fine. We don't want a lasting environmental impact.

但我们不希望对环境产生长久的影响。

We want something that's relatively cheap, or cost-effective,

这种产品最好比较便宜，性价比高

because there's an awful lot of countries involved,

因为灭蚊涉及很多很多国家

and some of them are emerging markets,

有些是发展中国家

some of them emerging countries, low-income.

而有些发展中国家的收入还不高。

And finally, you want something that's species-specific.

最后，这种产品最好是专门针对埃及伊蚊这一个种群。

You want to get rid of this mosquito that spreads dengue,

你希望能根除这种散播登革热的蚊子

but you don't really want to get all the other insects.

但你不想因此杀死其他所有昆虫

Some are quite beneficial. Some are important to your ecosystem.

有些昆虫对人们是有益的，有些则是维持生态环境平衡必不可少的。

This one's not. It's invaded you.

只有这种蚊子不是。它侵扰你的生活。

But you don't want to get all of the insects.

但你不会因此想杀死所有昆虫。

You just want to get this one.

你只是想消灭这一种。

And most of the time, you'll find this insect

而大多数时候，你会发现这种蚊子

lives in and around your home,

就住在你的家里。

so this -- whatever we do has got to get to that insect.

所以这就是我们为了消灭这些蚊子而必须做的。

It's got to get into people's houses, into the bedrooms,

我们必须进到人们的房子里，他们的卧室里

into the kitchens.

厨房里。

Now there are two features of mosquito biology

蚊子的两种特性

that really help us in this project,

能帮助我们更好的消灭它们

and that is, firstly, males don't bite.

首先，雄蚊子是不咬人的

It's only the female mosquito that will actually bite you.

只有雌蚊子才会咬人。

The male can't bite you, won't bite you,

雄性蚊子不会咬人也不能咬人

doesn't have the mouth parts to bite you.

它们没有咬人的嘴

It's just the female.

只有雌性蚊子才咬人。

And the second is a phenomenon

第二，我们发现雄性蚊子

that males are very, very good at finding females.

非常擅长找到雌性蚊子

If there's a male mosquito that you release,

如果你放飞一只雄蚊子

and if there's a female around, that male will find the female.

而且你的周围有雌蚊子，雄蚊子能马上找到雌蚊子。

So basically, we've used those two factors.

因此，我们可以利用这两点。

So here's a typical situation,

这是一种典型情况

male meets female, lots of offspring.

雄性蚊子找到雌性蚊子，产下很多下一代

A single female will lay about

一只雌蚊子一次能

up to 100 eggs at a time,

产多达100个卵

up to about 500 in her lifetime.

一生之中能产500个卵

Now if that male is carrying a gene

如果这只雄蚊子携带一种

which causes the death of the offspring,

使后代致死的基因

then the offspring don't survive,

那么它们的后代就无法生存

and instead of having 500 mosquitos running around,

这样你就不会看到500只飞来飞去的蚊子

you have none.

你一只都不会看到。

And if you can put more, I'll call them sterile,

而且如果你能放飞更多的不育的雄蚊子，我把这些携带这种基因的蚊子称为不育蚊子，

that the offspring will actually die at different stages,

事实上它们的后代会在不同时期死亡，

but I'll call them sterile for now.

但现在我先把它们叫做不育蚊子。

If you put more sterile males out into the environment,

如果你把更多的 不育蚊子放飞到自然环境中

then the females are more likely to find a sterile male

那么雌蚊子很可能遇到一只不育雄蚊子

than a fertile one, and you will bring that population down.

而不是一只能正常生育的雄蚊子，这样你就能把蚊子种群的数量降下来。

So the males will go out, they'll look for females,

于是，雄蚊子飞出去，它们寻找雌蚊子，

they'll mate. If they mate successfully, then no offspring.

然后它们交配。如果它们与雌蚊子成功交配，则无法产生后代。

If they don't find a female, then they'll die anyway.

如果雄蚊子找不到雌蚊子，它们也会死去。

They only live a few days.

雄蚊子只能存活几天时间。

And that's exactly where we are.

这恰恰是我们想要的结果。

So this is technology that was developed

这就是几年前

in Oxford University a few years ago.

牛津大学发明的一项技术。

The company itself, Oxitec, we've been working

我在Oxitec这家公司工作了十年，

for the last 10 years, very much on a sort of similar

Oxitec采用的是和药品公司

development pathway that you'd get with a pharmaceutical company.

非常类似的研发方式。

So about 10 years of internal evaluation, testing,

在进行了约十年的内部评定和测试以后

to get this to a state where we think it's actually ready.

我们认为这项产品已经成熟。

And then we've gone out into the big outdoors,

于是我们开始在户外大面积的使用它，

always with local community consent,

当然总是先征求当地政府和社区的同意，

always with the necessary permits.

和必须的许可，

So we've done field trials now in the Cayman Islands,

我们在一些地方进行了实地实验，包括开曼群岛的实验

a small one in Malaysia,

马来西亚的一个小范围实验

and two more now in Brazil.

以及巴西的两处实验。

And what's the result?

结果如何？

Well, the result has been very good.

结果令人非常满意。

In about four months of release,

在放飞（雄蚊子）的四个月的时间里

we've brought that population of mosquitos

我们改变了蚊子种群的数量

— in most cases we're dealing with villages here

大多数情况下我们是在乡村做这些实验

of about 2,000, 3,000 people, that sort of size,

大概2，000到，3000人的乡村

starting small —

从小范围做起

we've taken that mosquito population down

在四个月里我们将蚊子种群的数量

by about 85 percent in about four months.

减少了85%

And in fact, the numbers after that get,

事实上，后期蚊子种群的数目

those get very difficult to count, because there just aren't any left.

非常难以统计，因为有些地方几乎没有蚊子了。

So that's been what we've seen in Cayman,

这是我们在开曼取得的成果，

it's been what we've seen in Brazil

我们在巴西的实验

in those trials.

也取得了同样的成果。

And now what we're doing is we're going through a process

现在我们正在进行一个项目

to scale up to a town of about 50,000,

使其有效范围扩大到5,000人的城镇

so we can see this work at big scale.

这样我们能检测这个产品在大范围使用的效果。

And we've got a production unit in Oxford,

并且我们已经在牛津镇，或者说是牛津镇南部，建立了一个生产基地

or just south of Oxford, where we actually produce these mosquitos.

专门生产雄蚊子

We can produce them,

我们可以生产这些蚊子。

in a space a bit more than this red carpet,

在这块红地毯这么大的面积里

I can produce about 20 million a week.

我能每周生产出两千万只蚊子。

We can transport them around the world.

我们能把它们运到世界各地去。

It's not very expensive, because it's a coffee cup --

这并不昂贵，因为它们才有一个咖啡杯大小。

something the size of a coffee cup

一个咖啡杯大小的容器

will hold about three million eggs.

能装下三百万颗卵

So freight costs aren't our biggest problem. (Laughter)

所以运费不会是我们最大的问题（笑）。

So we've got that. You could call it a mosquito factory.

我们做到了。你可以称之为蚊子工厂。

And for Brazil, where we've been doing some trials,

而在巴西，我们曾经做实验的地方，

the Brazilian government themselves have now built

巴西政府自己修建起了

their own mosquito factory, far bigger than ours,

他们自己的蚊子工厂，比我们的大多了

and we'll use that for scaling up in Brazil.

我们就用这家工厂的产品在巴西进行大规模灭蚊。

There you are. We've sent mosquito eggs.

你来看看吧。我们把蚊子卵寄过去，

We've separated the males from the females.

把雄蚊子和雌蚊子分开，

The males have been put in little pots

雄蚊子被放进小瓶子里，

and the truck is going down the road

卡车沿着路走，

and they are releasing males as they go.

这些雄蚊子被沿途放飞。··

It's actually a little bit more precise than that.

实际情况中操作会更精准一些。

You want to release them so that

你希望放飞的雄蚊子能

you get good coverage of your area.

正好覆盖整个区域。

So you take a Google Map, you divide it up,

于是你拿一张谷歌地图，把地图

work out how far they can fly,

按照蚊子能飞的距离把地图上的面积分成小块，

and make sure you're releasing such that you get

这样你就能保证放飞的雄蚊子能恰好地

coverage of the area, and then you go back,

覆盖整个区域，放飞以后

and within a very short space of time,

过上很短的一段时间

you're bringing that population right the way down.

你就能使这个区域的蚊子种群数量降下来。

We've also done this in agriculture.

我们也把这项技术用在农业上。

We've got several different species of agriculture coming along,

我们也针对农业上一些其他种类昆虫开发了产品。

and I'm hoping that soon

我希望很快

we'll be able to get some funding together so we can get back

我们能获得一些资金，这样我们

and start looking at malaria.

能着手对付疟疾。

So that's where we stand at the moment,

这就是我们现阶段取得的成果。

and I've just got a few final thoughts,

我最后还有几点想法

which is that this is another way in which biology

这是另一种方式，用生物学方法

is now coming in to supplement chemistry

来补充化学方法，

in some of our societal advances in this area,

在某些比较先进的领域

and these biological approaches are coming in

这些生物学方法

in very different forms,

都各不相同。

and when you think about genetic engineering,

当你想到基因工程

we've now got enzymes for industrial processing,

我们现在有供工业制造用的酶，

enzymes, genetically engineered enzymes in food.

食物中的基因改造过的酶。

We have G.M. crops, we have pharmaceuticals,

我们有基因改造过的粮食，我们有药品，

we have new vaccines,

我们有新的疫苗，

all using roughly the same technology, but with very different outcomes.

都采用了几乎相同的技术，却带来了非常不一样的效果。

And I'm in favor, actually. Of course I am.

实际上我更倾向于

I'm in favor of particularly where the older technologies

在那些旧的技术没有效果，

don't work well or have become unacceptable.

或者旧技术变得无法接受的领域（使用新技术）。

And although the techniques are similar,

虽然这项技术是相似的

the outcomes are very, very different,

其结果却非常非常不同。

and if you take our approach, for example,

举例来说，如果你把我们的方法

and you compare it to, say, G.M. crops,

和基因改造的粮食作比较，

both techniques are trying to produce a massive benefit.

两者都试图造福于人类，

Both have a side benefit,

但也都有各自的副作用。

which is that we reduce pesticide use tremendously.

那就是我们大大减少了杀虫剂的使用量。

But whereas a G.M. crop is trying to protect the plant,

但是，区别在于，基因改造的植物试图

for example, and give it an advantage,

通过给予植物抵抗力优势来保护植物，

what we're actually doing is taking the mosquito

而我们所做的则是

and giving it the biggest disadvantage it can possibly have,

使蚊子获得其最大的劣势

rendering it unable to reproduce effectively.

以使其无法生育。

So for the mosquito, it's a dead end.

对于蚊子来说，这是它们的末日。

Thank you very much. (Applause)

非常感谢（掌声）