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Asian tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus) are among the world’s most invasive mosquito species and can spread dengue and Zika viruses. In a study published today (July 17) in Nature, an international team of researchers has virtually eradicated populations of the insects from two residential areas in China.
“It’s a very nice paper with potentially big implications for the whole vector control field,” says Ewa Chrostek, a researcher at the University of Liverpool in the UK who did not participate in the work. “It builds on previous work . . . but also adds additional safeguards.”
Specifically, Zhiyong Xi of Michigan State University and colleagues infected the insects with the bacterium Wolbachia to limit embryo viability and, as an added precaution, irradiated mosquitoes to induce sterility, and then released millions of male mosquitoes, which don’t bite, at their test sites. The males mated with local females, resulting in ...
