JERUSALEM, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Israeli students have developed a sophisticated biological method to eliminate mass amounts of mosquitoes, using genetically-engineered bacteria, the southern Ben Gurion University (BGU) reported Thursday.
Mosquitoes carry viruses that infect humans with high mortality rates, such as malaria, dengue fever, Zika fever, yellow fever, chikungunya, West Nile fever and Japanese encephalitis.
The BGU students mainly tried to find a solution for mosquito breeding in small, hidden water accumulations, which are difficult to reach with the existing pest control methods.
In their research, the students genetically-engineered deadly bacteria and planted them into male mosquitoes, which were then released outdoors.
The bacteria were spread to female mosquitoes, and due to the genetic modification, they also passed on to the mosquitoes' offspring (larvae). Thus, the larvae died immediately after the oviposition because of the bacterial effect.
The students chose to plant the bacteria only into male mosquitoes because most countries ban the release of female mosquitoes into the wild due to their dangerous bites.
It was also found that healthy larvae that hatched later ate the infected dead ones, got infected themselves and died.
The experiments were carried out with Aedes Aegypti mosquitos and BTI bacteria, which secretes a toxin that kills only the mosquito larvae.
