Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s 32,000,000 mosquitoes.This is what Google, the search engine and AI giant, is planning to do as part of an ambitious public health project in California and Florida.Google is seeking federal approval to breed and release swarms of mosquitoes carrying an infection that is harmless to humans.
Mosquitoes are among the deadliest animals in the world, sickening millions every year with diseases including: West Nile virus, St Louis encephalitis, dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.To combat this, Google researchers want to make the buzzing insects sterile, so they can’t mate.How would it work? Only female mosquitoes spread viruses when they bite an animal infected with the virus and then bite a person.
Males only nibble on plant nectar.Rather than tinker with their DNA or spraying streets with insecticides, the Google team wants to infect them with the parasitic bacteria Wolbachia.Wolbachia live quietly in almost all kinds of insects – from bees to butterflies – and don’t harm humans.
In mosquitoes, Wolbachia burrows into the insect’s reproductive machinery and shields them from infections like the West Nile virus.An infected female carries Wolbachia in her eggs, so her offspring are born infected.If they even hatch, given that it can make eggs non-viable.
This workaround, called the Sterile Insect Technique, could cause the local wild mosquito population to plummet, according to Google.The first year of the project, called Debug, would see up to 16 million mosquitoes released in Florida.The second year of the project would see another 16 million mosquitoes released in California, according to a notice from the Federal Register.
Google hopes to use robots to rear the droning bugs and AI-powered visual sorting systems to seperate them by sex.These ‘good bugs’, as the company puts them, would then be let loose in the locations and quantities needed to outnumber the wild mosquitoes.The Debug website says: ‘We’re combining the Debug team’s scientific and engineering expertise with the help of international partners to raise and release lots of good bugs and stop bad mosquitoes that can spread disease.’ By wild mosquitoes, Google means Culex mosquitoes, infamous for carrying West Nile virus and St Louis encephalitis.
West Nile virus disease causes eye pain, skin rashes and fever and leaves people physically exhausted for months.In rare cases, the mosquito-borne viral disease causes severe neurological disease, causing paralysis, meningitis and brain damage.St Louis encephalitis, meanwhile, is a potentially fatal inflammation of the brain.
Rentokil, a pest control company, told Metro: ‘Mosquitoes may be small, but their global impact is anything but.‘In today’s world, where climate change, travel, and urban growth are making mosquito-borne illnesses more common, staying protected is more important than ever.’ But Brent Nye, a Florida local, wasn’t as sold.‘I’m not sure whether I would want them in my backyard because there are going to be a lot of things that go wrong,’ he told 10 Tampa Bay News.
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