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Researchers pbaded a test of sterilization of mosquitoes, causing a vertiginous fall of the population in a city of the north-east of the country.
More than 80% of a mosquito colony, spreading dengue fever, was wiped out in an Australian city during a test. It is a technique of sterilization of insects which allowed this advance.
Mosquitoes infected by the bacterium Wolbachia. Researchers from Australia's public scientific research organization Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have reproduced millions of non-biting Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes as part of a project funded by Alphabet, Google's parent company.
The insects were infected with the bacterium Wolbachia, which makes them sterile. They were later released in Innisfail, a town in the Queensland Regional State in the north-east of the country. For more than three months, they fertilized females that laid eggs that did not hatch, causing a vertiginous drop in their population.
A very dangerous insect. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, one of the most dangerous in the world, is the main vector of dengue fever, Zika virus, chikungunya and yellow fever. It is responsible for the infection of millions of people each year around the world. That's why this scientific test is a major breakthrough, said Kyran Stauton of Australian University James Cook. "We learned a lot by participating in this first tropical test," he said.
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