Thousands of male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacterium will be released regularly into three former dengue clusters at Tampines Avenue 4, Yishun Street 21, as well as Jalan Riang and Jalan Sukachita in Serangoon over six months from October 2016, the National Environment Agency (NEA) announced on Saturday (Aug 27). It is part of a "small-scale" field study and comes after a comprehensive risk assessment found it would be safe to release such mosquitoes, with no risk to human health and insignificant impact on ecology, NEA said.
Only female Aedes mosquitoes spread dengue by biting humans. Should a male carrier of the Wolbachia bacterium mate with an uninfected female mosquito, the resulting eggs will not hatch. NEA hopes that by releasing sufficient numbers of Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti males, they can compete successfully against wild males and eventually drive down mosquito numbers as the population fails to reproduce. Over time, this could also reduce the potential spread of dengue. NEA expects that the method could also help prevent the transmission of other mosquito-transmitted diseases such as Chikungunya and Zika.
NEA said it carried out a four-year evaluation of the process, involving critical reviews of existing research, consultations with various stakeholders such as academic experts, medical and healthcare professionals, and non-governmental organisations such as nature groups. It found the bacterium – which is naturally found in insects in the wild – to offer suitable biological properties. Full story...
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Only female Aedes mosquitoes spread dengue by biting humans. Should a male carrier of the Wolbachia bacterium mate with an uninfected female mosquito, the resulting eggs will not hatch. NEA hopes that by releasing sufficient numbers of Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti males, they can compete successfully against wild males and eventually drive down mosquito numbers as the population fails to reproduce. Over time, this could also reduce the potential spread of dengue. NEA expects that the method could also help prevent the transmission of other mosquito-transmitted diseases such as Chikungunya and Zika.
NEA said it carried out a four-year evaluation of the process, involving critical reviews of existing research, consultations with various stakeholders such as academic experts, medical and healthcare professionals, and non-governmental organisations such as nature groups. It found the bacterium – which is naturally found in insects in the wild – to offer suitable biological properties. Full story...
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