Google\u2019s parent company Alphabet and scientists in the US have teamed up to release 20 million machine-raised mosquitoes to shrink the numbers of the disease-carrying ones.
\nAccording to the plans, millions of sterile male mosquitoes will be released in Fresno county in California, which will then mate with wild female mosquitoes. The eggs the females lay won\u2019t hatch, a report in the Washington Post said.<\/p>\n
The project, called Debug Fresno, is being undertaken by Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google\u2019s holding company.<\/p>\n
Scientists said that the goal is to cut the numbers of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes\u2014the species responsible for spreading zika, dengue and chikungunya.<\/p>\n
For 20 weeks, the company plans to release a million of the sterile, non-biting male mosquitoes in two neighbourhoods in Fresno county.<\/p>\n
The male mosquitoes are bred and infected with Wolbachia, a bacterium that is naturally found in at least 40 per cent of all insect species, the report said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver time, we hope to see a steep decline in the presence of Aedes aegypti in these communities,\u201d Verily was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
In a phenomenon called cytoplasmic incompatibility, \u201cmatings between Wolbachia-infected males and uninfected females result in embryo lethality or low hatch rates\u201d, William Sullivan and Scott L. O\u2019Neill wrote in the journal Nature.<\/p>\n
They said that the bacterium used to sterilise mosquitoes \u201cis not known\u201d to infect humans.<\/p>\n
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