Chinese and foreign teams develop new methods for efficient mosquito control

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the main vector of the virus, such as dengue and Zika, and the prevention and control of such mosquitoes is important to curb the spread of related infectious diseases, The team of Professor Zhai Zhiyong of Sun Yat-sen University in China, in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Michigan State University, Guangzhou, China, Weiyukun Biotech Co., Ltd., and the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has developed a new method for controlling mosquito populationsThe team first infected the mosquitoes with Wolbachia, and then the mosquitoes to carry out low-dose radiation, so that the radiation levels to the female mosquito sterilization effect, but does not affect the male mosquito reproductive capacity, and eventually these infected bacteria and radiation mosquitorelease into the wildprevious studies have found that Wolbachia can be used to control the breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the male Aedes aegypti mosquito infected with this common symbiotic bacteria, the female Aedes aegypti mosquito with which the eggs can not hatchteam conducted field tests on two islands in Guangzhou, where millions of the radioactive Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were releasedThe results showed that this "two-pronged" approach allowed the wild Aedes aegypti mosquito population in the test area to be almost completely eliminatedcomes after a British company tried to control mosquito populations using genetically modified technologyZhai Zhiyong told Xinhua that the new method has a greater advantage over genetically modified technology in terms of biosecurity and control"Because we use a symbiotic bacteria that is widespread in natural insects, it may have been close and peaceful with us since the advent of humans, and it has not been able to infect vertebrates, including humans."will this new approach pose ecological risks? Zhai Zhiyong explained that there are more than 3000 kinds of mosquitoes in nature, the new technology only for a few spreading diseases of the mosquito species, other non-transmission diseases, less harmful to human smaller mosquito species are not affectedThe team plans to test the new method in a wider urban area to see if it can effectively stop the spread of infectious diseases such as dengue fever.