Chinese 'Mosquito Factory' Sets Loose 20 Million Mosquitoes Every Week
A "mosquito factory" in China's Guangzhou city is breeding 20 million mosquitoes every week and releasing them into the world.
The male mosquitoes are infected with bacteria before they are set free to copulate with female mosquitoes in the wild. The aim of this project, according to the research team, is to reduce the mosquito population and eradicate mosquito-borne diseases.
On Monday, March 14, a group of scientists led by Xi Zhiyong of China's Sun Yat-sen University and Michigan State University announced that they are infecting the male mosquitoes with Wolbachia bacteria. When infected male mosquitoes breed with wild female mosquitoes, they produce infertile eggs. Though this may sound like a radical method of eliminating disease, the scientists believe that it is an effective way of reducing the risk of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever, chikungunya, and the Zika virus.
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Because these illnesses, which kill millions every year, are carried by mosquitoes, releasing bacteria-laden bugs that produce infertile eggs could drastically reduce the risk of these diseases becoming epidemics, the scientists said.
Modifying mosquitoes to control their population is not an entirely novel approach. Genetically modified mosquitoes have already been released in nature as an experimental method of cutting mosquito populations. However, Wolbachia mosquitoes are thought to be a better option as genetically modified mosquitoes only kill one generation whereas Wolbachia is passed on to the next through infected female mosquitoes.
According to the "Eliminate Dengue" program, early studies have found that infecting mosquitoes with Wolbachia does not add to the risk that the mosquitoes will transmit other pathogens and that Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes pose no harmful effect to the environment. However, as Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes are ingested by fish and birds, their greater impact on the ecosystem remains unknown.
Though the research scientists did not confirm where the mosquitoes will be released in the future, their pilot project unleashed 500,000 infected mosquitoes in a small Guangzhou island in March 2015. According to the scientists, the mosquito population there was cut by half as of June 2015. "500,000 mosquitoes sound a lot, but in fact, they're like a drop in the ocean," Xi told the Beijing News (translated by Quartz).
