More than 80% of a dengue fever-spreading mosquito has been wiped out in an Australian town during a landmark trial, scientists said on Tuesday, offering hope for combating the dangerous pest globally.
Researchers from Australia’s national science body CSIRO bred millions of non-biting male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in laboratory conditions at James Cook University (JCU) in a project funded by Google parent company Alphabet.
The insects were infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, which renders them sterile.
Eggs did not hatch
They were then released into the wild at trial sites around the Queensland town of Innisfail where over three months they mated with females who laid eggs that did not hatch, causing the population to plummet.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito is one of the world’s most dangerous pests.
It is responsible for infecting millions of people around the world each year and JCU’s Kyran Staunton said the successful trial was a major step forward.
The so-called sterile insect technique has been used before but the challenge in making it work for mosquitoes was being able to rear enough of them, identify males, remove biting females, and then release them in large enough numbers to suppress a population.
Verily — a life sciences company funded by Alphabet — has developed a mosquito rearing, sex sorting and release technology as part of its global Debug project.
