FIGHTING ZIKA WITH ‘MOSQUITO FACTORIES’

(Music)
when people mention mosquitoes
most think irritating but others see serious health risks.
Every one is talking about Zika
but the same mosquito is transmitting dengue as well.
the research being done here in guangzhou china
will have
tremendous impact in reducing mosquito
populations worldwide
If we can eradicate that mosquito we can also eradicate this disease.
Zhiyong Xi, MSU associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics,
leads a partnership with Sun Yat-sen university to do just that.
Traditional methods of mosquito control
have usually been through the use of pesticides,
but Xi's approach is a little different
Rather than using the pesticide
we are using the mosquito itself to combat themselves
we are breeding millions of mosquito
which carry the bacteria.
yes he said millions approximately five million a week
are bred in this special facility.
During the breeding process,
Xi's team infect the male mosquitoes
with wolbachia bacteria. This bacteria is
naturally found in many strains of
mosquitoes but is not dangerous to humans.
then the mosquitoes are released to the field
and they are mated with the wild female making them sterile.
In our trial. we have reached over ninety percent suppression our tray we have reached
ninety percent suppression in the target mosquito
These impressive results have prompted Mexican officials
to visit Xi's facility to help coordinate similar efforts in the Yucatan.
We have mosquitoes at home in Mexico
and China also has mosquitos at home
home so it was very exciting to see how
things are what things are different
what things are similar and and how
things are working here and we're expecting
them or hoping that they were going to
have with a results they have been
having here in china
By reducing mosquito populations and the ability of
mosquitoes to transmit viruses the
project when fully deployed expects to
arrest the transmission of such
vector-borne diseases
i think that our presence here, China USA and Mexico
it's not only showing that we also can
have shared problems but we also can
share the technology and the capacity
for solving the problems together.
we hope developing this technology can be using globally
for the dengue and the Zika Control.
our goal is to reduce mosquito
population that carry the disease.

FIGHTING ZIKA WITH ‘MOSQUITO FACTORIES’

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