When the released males mate with
wild female mosquitoes, the resulting eggs will not hatch
Mythili Sampathkumar New
York
Wednesday 31 January 2018 21:40
GMT
In order to fight Zika and other
similar viruses, researchers are going to release thousands of sterilised
mosquitoes in south Miami, Florida this week.
Researchers infected the male of
the species with a bacteria in a lab and when they mate with females, the
resulting eggs will die before hatching.
The Miami-Dade County Mosquito
Reduction Test Program is a collaboration from the University of Kentucky and
Kentucky-based company MosquitoMate.
The project is an attempt to
reduce mosquito populations in the region without artificial genetic
modification.
The bacteria used to infect the
males, wolbachia, is a naturally-occurring substance in 60 per cent of insects
including butterflies and dragonflies.
It is not harmful to humans.
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