Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s 32,000,000 mosquitoes.
That’s the vision behind a new public health project from Google inCaliforniaandFlorida.
Googleis seeking federal approval to breed and release swarms of mosquitoes carrying an infectionharmless to humans.
Mosquitoes are among the deadliest animals in the world, making millions sick every year with diseases includingWest Nile virus, St Louis encephalitis, dengue, Zika,chikungunyaand yellow fever.
To tackle this, researchers aim to render the insects sterile.
Only female mosquitoes spread viruses when they bite an animal infected with the virus and then bite a person. Males only nibble on plant nectar.
Rather than tinker with their DNA or spray streets with insecticides, the Google team want to infect them with the parasitic bacteria Wolbachia.
Wolbachia lives quietly in almost all kinds of insects from bees to butterflies, and doesn’t harm humans.
In mosquitoes, Wolbachia burrows into the insect’s reproductive machinery and shields them from infections like the West Nile virus.
An infected female carries Wolbachia in her eggs, so her offspring are born infected – if they even hatch, as the bacteria can also make mosquito eggs non-viable.
Source: Drudge Report
