Over the past few years the Zika Virus has been making headlines all over the world. Mosquitoes transmitting a deadly disease to humans which can create problems such as birth defects.
Mosquitos are quite possibly the World's deadliest creatures hosting. Mosquitoes have been a risk to humans for centuries, spreading disease and death to millions. They are the primary vectors for major human diseases such as yellow fever, malaria, chikungunya, dengue fever and of course the Zika Virus.
Three times a week, 25,000 mosquitos are being released in the Florida Keys. They're running a trial to see if it can reduce the population of mosquitoes through what may seem like a counterintuitive method, by releasing more mosquitoes. While these are mosquitoes, the creatures responsible for the most human deaths each year. All of the creatures being released are males. Why does this matter? Only female mosquitoes can bite.
These male mosquitoes goal is to contribute to a significant suppression of the female bugs that do bite and spread disease to humans. The mosquitoes being released are infected with a bacteria called wolbachia which interferes with reproduction, essentially aiming to spread infertility through the mosquitoes in the area that are affecting humans.
The type of mosquitoes posing most risk to humans in the United States is the Aedes aegypti. Where the wolvachia bacteria is not naturally found. So when these males infected with wolbachia are released into the wild, they mate with uninfected females, aresulting in their eggs not hatching.
This is not only happening in Florida but in California, with the help of one of the world's largest technology companies, Google.
This is one of Google's latest projects called 'Debug.' Where a picture is taken of every single mosquito captured in a field. Computers then determine whether the mosquito is male or female, and only release the males.
Linus Upson is vice president of engineering at Google's health subsidiary Verily, and leader of the Debug project.
Google is building software and monitoring tools to guide each release. Making sure females can be separated efficiently and makes released are infected with wolbachia which can lower the population and risk of disease.
Mosquitos are quite possibly the World's deadliest creatures hosting. Mosquitoes have been a risk to humans for centuries, spreading disease and death to millions. They are the primary vectors for major human diseases such as yellow fever, malaria, chikungunya, dengue fever and of course the Zika Virus.
Three times a week, 25,000 mosquitos are being released in the Florida Keys. They're running a trial to see if it can reduce the population of mosquitoes through what may seem like a counterintuitive method, by releasing more mosquitoes. While these are mosquitoes, the creatures responsible for the most human deaths each year. All of the creatures being released are males. Why does this matter? Only female mosquitoes can bite.
These male mosquitoes goal is to contribute to a significant suppression of the female bugs that do bite and spread disease to humans. The mosquitoes being released are infected with a bacteria called wolbachia which interferes with reproduction, essentially aiming to spread infertility through the mosquitoes in the area that are affecting humans.
The type of mosquitoes posing most risk to humans in the United States is the Aedes aegypti. Where the wolvachia bacteria is not naturally found. So when these males infected with wolbachia are released into the wild, they mate with uninfected females, aresulting in their eggs not hatching.
This is not only happening in Florida but in California, with the help of one of the world's largest technology companies, Google.
This is one of Google's latest projects called 'Debug.' Where a picture is taken of every single mosquito captured in a field. Computers then determine whether the mosquito is male or female, and only release the males.
Linus Upson is vice president of engineering at Google's health subsidiary Verily, and leader of the Debug project.
Google is building software and monitoring tools to guide each release. Making sure females can be separated efficiently and makes released are infected with wolbachia which can lower the population and risk of disease.
Written by Ross