Sophie Hares -
Spraying thousands of sterile mosquitoes from specially adapted drones could prove a cost-effective way to slash numbers of the insects and curb the spread of Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases, say the backers of the technology.
WeRobotics, a non-profit trialling the method, plans to start mosquito-release tests shortly in Latin America.
It recently piloted ways to transport medicines and medical samples in Peru’s Amazon region and the Dominican Republic using the unmanned aerial vehicles. But this time the cargo will be sensitive insects.
“It makes no sense to release mosquitoes that are 90 per cent dead or damaged — we need to make sure the quality of the mosquito is very high so they can compete for females,” said drone maker Adam Klaptocz, co-founder of WeRobotics, which is based in Switzerland and the United States.
“The ultimate goal is to integrate drones into future vector control campaigns,” he said.
Mosquito-control programmes using sterile insects often rely on trucks to disperse the bugs, or people releasing them from backpacks. Both of these are time-consuming methods unsuited to hard-to-reach places. With aerial dissemination, the sterilised insects must be cooled down before they are packed into the container of the drone which would then expel them at altitude, said Klaptocz.
In the trial, the mosquitoes will be marked, trapped and inspected to see how they fare and how far they are dispersed, he said. The drones cost around $5,000 each.
If successfully released, the sterile male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes would compete with wild insects to breed with females, eventually suppressing numbers and helping stop the spread of diseases, including Zika, Klaptocz explained.
Pregnant women infected with Zika risk having babies with the birth defect microcephaly, which is defined by an unusually small head and can result in developmental problems and other severe brain abnormalities. The Zika epidemic that hit Brazil in 2015 affected thousands of babies.
Usually found in urban and semi-urban areas, the Aedes aegypti mosquito also transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
Two or three drones could control mosquitoes across an entire city, replacing a few hundred trucks and the staff needed to run the operation, Klaptocz said.
WeRobotics, which is working with the US development agency USAID and the International Atomic Energy Agency, is awaiting final approval for its upcoming drone test, before announcing where it will be held, he added. — Thomson Reuters Foundation
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