MHSC
Senior Moderator
Brazil releases dengue-fighting mosquitoes
Brazilian scientists have released thousands of Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in an attempt to tame the spread of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease of humans, which re-emerged in the country in 1981 after a 20-year lull and caused some 7 million illnesses over the following 30 years, the BBC reported today.
Wolbachia is an intracellular bacterium that "acts like a vaccine" for dengue-carrying mosquitoes in that it stops the dengue virus from multiplying in the insect's body, according to the story. The organism also interferes with reproduction in mosquitoes. Eggs fertilized by Wolbachia-contaminated male mosquitoes do not turn into larvae, and if a female mosquito is contaminated, all her future generations will also carry the bacterium.
The sum result is that mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia,which is not transmissible to humans or animals, multiply and become dominant, with the benefit to humans that those mosquitoes can't transmit dengue.
The plan is to release 10,000 contaminated mosquitoes each month for 4 months. The first release is in a northern part of Rio de Janeiro. Studies and an evaluation of the project are scheduled for 2016. Similar initiatives are under way in Australia, where research on the dengue control method began in 2008, and in Vietnam and Indonesia.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/news-scan-sep-25-2014
Brazilian scientists have released thousands of Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in an attempt to tame the spread of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease of humans, which re-emerged in the country in 1981 after a 20-year lull and caused some 7 million illnesses over the following 30 years, the BBC reported today.
Wolbachia is an intracellular bacterium that "acts like a vaccine" for dengue-carrying mosquitoes in that it stops the dengue virus from multiplying in the insect's body, according to the story. The organism also interferes with reproduction in mosquitoes. Eggs fertilized by Wolbachia-contaminated male mosquitoes do not turn into larvae, and if a female mosquito is contaminated, all her future generations will also carry the bacterium.
The sum result is that mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia,which is not transmissible to humans or animals, multiply and become dominant, with the benefit to humans that those mosquitoes can't transmit dengue.
The plan is to release 10,000 contaminated mosquitoes each month for 4 months. The first release is in a northern part of Rio de Janeiro. Studies and an evaluation of the project are scheduled for 2016. Similar initiatives are under way in Australia, where research on the dengue control method began in 2008, and in Vietnam and Indonesia.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/news-scan-sep-25-2014