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Mosquito Vaccine Platform

1:50:09 recording · AUTO · 4 speakers

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Brief overview

Two studies: wildlife trade drives pathogen sharing with humans, and vaccines delivered by mosquitoes or saline traps could immunize bats.

  1. Traded mammals share far more pathogens41% of 2,079 traded species share a pathogen with humans, versus 6.4% of non-traded species.
  2. Each decade in trade adds a pathogenAcross 236,000 CITES records from 1980 to 2019, one extra shared pathogen appeared per 10 years in trade.
  3. Saline traps beat vaccine-carrying mosquitoesBats seroconverted by both routes, but only the mist trap stays contained near the cave.
Executive Summary AI
  • TWIV episode 1315, recorded April 17th, 2026 with Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Angela Bingarelli and Alan Dove, opens with a tribute to herpes virologist Bernard Roisman, who died on the 13th of April at 96.8:42
  • The first paper, Wildlife Trade Drives Animal to Human Pathogen Transmission over 40 Years, reports that among 2,079 traded mammal species 41% share at least one pathogen with humans, against 6.4% of non-traded species.33:19
  • Using 236,000 CITES trade records for 583 mammal species traded between 1980 and 2019, time in trade mattered: a species shared one additional pathogen with humans for every 10 years in the trade.36:35
  • The second paper, in Science Advances, puts rabies or Nipah glycoprotein into an attenuated VSV vector and delivers it to bats through irradiated Aedes aegypti mosquitoes or a saline mist trap, with 75% survival after rabies challenge in the ingestion group and 100% in the bite group.52:08
  • The panel judged the mosquito route unreleasable, since the insects can travel a kilometre a day and the vector was never tested in humans, and preferred the far more contained saline trap at the cave.1:15:58
Key Quote
“It's far more dangerous to just wait for a pandemic to come around.”
— Vincent Racaniello15:56
Key Quote
“Imagine trying to vaccinate every single one of them.”
— Angela Bingarelli46:27
Key Quote
“This comes under the heading of what could possibly go wrong, right?”
— Rich Condit50:09