Saturday, January 3, 2009
Mosquitoes generally mature spread disease, so the Australian researchers have found ways to make these insects die prematurely _ in a natural way, without pesticides.
Scientists have been working to genetically modify mosquitoes resistant to diseases like malaria and dengue fever, problems that affect millions of people around the world, as an alternative to the massive use of insecticides.
A report published on Friday suggested a less complicated breed mosquitoes carrying a parasite that causes premature death.
Once the mosquito is infected with dengue fever or malaria, it takes two weeks for incubation before the insect can spread the disease andalusia andalusia biting someone, which means that older mosquitoes are most dangerous.
Australian scientists know that a type of fruit fly is often infected with a strain of bacterial parasite that halved his life.
Therefore infected with the parasite to mosquitoes that spread dengue fever _The called Aedes aegypti_ raising several generations in a tightly controlled laboratory.
The mosquito-born parasite live only 21 days _ even in the best condition of the laboratory _ compared with 50 days for regular mosquitoes, wrote biologist at the University of Queensland Scott O'Neill in the journal Science.
The mosquitoes usually die before in the wild in the laboratories. Therefore, if the parasite can spread widely among those mosquitoes, "could provide an inexpensive approach to control dengue," said O'Neill.
In theory, annihilating the parasite could spread between mosquitoes: This bacterium called Wolbachia is very common among arthropods, including some species of mosquito _ but not the carriers of the dengue and malaria, the researchers stressed. And the single Wolbachia is transmitted by infected mothers, which would allow it to spread rapidly in a new population.
Labels: Health
