Google's life sciences arm to release good mosquitoes in Fresno
- 7 years ago
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA — The life sciences arm of Google's parent company Alphabet plans to release 20 million bacteria-infected mosquitoes in Fresno, California, in the hope of wiping out aedes aegypti mosquitoes potentially carrying the Zika virus.
Verily, the research department of Alphabet, says it has developed larval-rearing robots to raise aedes aegypti mosquitoes with the naturally occurring Wolbachia bacteria. The mosquitoes are then separated into females and males to ensure only the males are released. However, the company did not share details of the specifications of the robots or technologies.
"Achieving sex sorting at any scale has been an enormous hurdle.This is the stuff entomologists dream about," Jacob Crawford, a scientists at Verily told Wired.
When the infected males mate with female mosquitoes, their eggs would not be able to hatch, thus eliminating the wild aedes aegypti mosquito population.
About one million infected male mosquitoes will be released in Fresno over a 20-week period. The mosquitoes will be released by specially designed debug vans in two 300 acre-neighbourhoods.
The large-scale release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes has previously been trialed in South America. The method is recommended by the World Health Organization despite the absence of an official report on its impact.
Verily, the research department of Alphabet, says it has developed larval-rearing robots to raise aedes aegypti mosquitoes with the naturally occurring Wolbachia bacteria. The mosquitoes are then separated into females and males to ensure only the males are released. However, the company did not share details of the specifications of the robots or technologies.
"Achieving sex sorting at any scale has been an enormous hurdle.This is the stuff entomologists dream about," Jacob Crawford, a scientists at Verily told Wired.
When the infected males mate with female mosquitoes, their eggs would not be able to hatch, thus eliminating the wild aedes aegypti mosquito population.
About one million infected male mosquitoes will be released in Fresno over a 20-week period. The mosquitoes will be released by specially designed debug vans in two 300 acre-neighbourhoods.
The large-scale release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes has previously been trialed in South America. The method is recommended by the World Health Organization despite the absence of an official report on its impact.