Anti-dengue mosquitoes
Posted by Rahmi Lale | Filed under Biotechnology, Science
Anti-dengue mosquitoes released in Australia – health – 24 August 2011 – New Scientist
Some 300,000 mosquitoes with the potential to block the spread of dengue fever have been released in Australia, in a large-scale trial of one of the most promising techniques to rid the world of the disease.
Last year, O’Neill and colleagues announced plans to release Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with a fruit-fly bacterium called Wolbachia. The bacterium makes the mosquitoes less able to carry the dengue virus, and it could therefore limit dengue transmission if it were to become widespread in the mosquito population.
Postdoctoral fellow at