Experimental mosquitoes to fight Zika virus
Thousands of mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria were released in Florida this week, as a way of trying to control the disease-carrying female Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits Zika virus and other diseases such as Dengue fever and Chikungunya.
A total of 20,000 male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were releases on Stock Island Tuesday for a field trial set to last 12 weeks, according to Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. The mosquitoes released were infected with a naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia and do not bite.
When the infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes mate with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the eggs she produces will not hatch, leading to a reduced or eliminated population of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and the viruses they spread, according to CNN.
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“A successful trial with the Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes could mean the availability of a new tool in the fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito for not only our District, but for Mosquito Control Districts around the country,” said Andrea Leal, executive director for the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District.
These infected mosquitoes will be released twice a week at 20 different places in the designated area for the trial. Even though they do not bite, the mosquito control office warned that “increases of mosquito activity will be most noticeable immediately following the releases”.
The experiment proved successful outside the US. The first Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes were released into the suburbs of Cairns, Australia, in 2011. They quickly spread into the wild and replaced the disease-carrying population with a new, disease-free one. Additional field trials are set to happen in Indonesia, Vietnam, Colombia and Brazil.
The officials in Florida are also trying to achieve results with a trial of genetically modified mosquitoes from British company Oxitec.
OX513A is a male Aedes aegypti mosquito that is genetically engineered to pass along a lethal gene to the female mosquioes that makes the offspring die. Oxitec says that field trials in Brazil, Panama and Cayman Islands resulted in a 90% reduction of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the span of six months.
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