Scientists associated with the American company Google are about to release a multi-million army of infected mosquitoes into the wild in the United States. This was reported by the Daily Mail on Wednesday, June 3.
Over two years, California and Florida plan to release 32 million male mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria. According to the project authors, infected males will mate with wild females, which will lay eggs incapable of normal development. This should lead to a decline in the number of mosquitoes that carry diseases dangerous to humans, including the Zika virus and dengue fever.
However, the initiative sparked many protests in America. Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett questioned why an IT company would be involved in an insect-related project, recalling the negative experience of importing invasive species into the United States. The project will be implemented by Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, the holding company that runs Google, the statement said. material.
Earlier, South Africa recorded the first case of dengue fever this year, as the disease was discovered in a Russian woman who came on vacation.