Yes, you read that well: Google's mosquitoes are built to try to reduce the population and stop any insect-borne diseases.
Although it sounds like a hoax story, it's a reality. Its biotechnology section A (Verily), formerly known as Google Life Sciences, said last week that Debug, an initiative to reduce the volume of mosquitoes carrying diseases around the world, is now ready for testing.
His field of testing Debug Fresno, will be held in California, in collaboration with the local Consolidated Mosquito Abatement (CMAD) of Fresno County. The test, starting from now, aims to test methods for reducing the population of mosquito Aedes aegypti, which carries diseases such as Zika, dengue fever and chikungunya.
The aggressive mosquito species appeared for the first time in Fresno, 2013, but no cases of the aforementioned diseases have yet been reported.
Για να αντιμετωπίσει το ζήτημα, η Verily θα απελευθερώνει τουλάχιστον ένα εκατομμύριο στείρα αρσενικά κουνούπια κάθε εβδομάδα στο Fresno. Τα έντομα έχουν υποστεί "επεξεργασία" με Wolbachia, ένα φυσικό βακτήριο που εμποδίζει την παρtreatment eggs in males and in females development and hatching.
Male Aldes aegypti mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia were first released in the country by 2016 due to the efforts of CMAD and MosquitoMate, but Verily says that by adding the automated mosquito production, due to the algorithms and software it developed, to increase the volume of male mosquitoes by 25 times more than before.
According to the company the "automated mass rearing and sexing procedures" developed make it possible to release one million insects per week.
In addition, ground release devices allow the release of mosquitoes in a "uniform and targeted manner" during duration of the breeding season.
Once the release is complete, the Verily team will compare the adult population and egg hatching in testing areas with neighboring areas.
Όσο για τους κατοίκους που ανησυχούν για κάποια ξαφνική αύξηση των κουνουπιών κατά τη διάρκεια των δοκιμών, αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι τα αρσενικά δεν "δαγκώνουν" και δεν μεταδίδουν ασθένειες στους people.
Watch this video presentation of the project
