By Muhammad Mahdi Karim – Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9556152

It is a not so classic battle of good versus bad, being fought by Verily Life Sciences LLC (formerly Google Life Sciences). Verily, in a blog post announced, with the help of partners that they have just released a million bacteria-infected male mosquitoes they raised, in Fresno, California.  “Run that by me again” you say?  These male mosquitoes do not bite and have a naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia, that ensures these released males are sterile, but will still mate with female skeeters creating non-viable eggs.  This approach called the sterile insect technique (SIT), is a targeted strategy to limit populations and thereby slow the spread of mosquitoes, which carry pathogens.

The recent debut launch called Debug Fresno is a field study that aims to basically exterminate the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the central California county.  Verily, partnering with MosquitoMate and Fresno’s Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District, is planning to release 1 million of their engineered male mosquitoes every week for 20 weeks. The project is powered by Verily’s new technology package that combines software and novel engineering to raise these sterile mosquitoes with monitoring tools to guide mosquito releases.  To understand which areas need to be prioritized for treatment and re-treatment first, Verily deploys its own proprietary sensors, traps and software.

The Aedes aegypti mosquitoes also known as yellow fever mosquitoes, first arrived in the central California area in 2013.  These yellow fever mosquitoes are being specifically targeted because they are known to spread the Zika virus, dengue, and chikungunya.  Currently none of these viruses are spreading in the Fresno area, but forty percent of the world is at risk of contracting a disease spread by Aedes aegypti.

A new survey conducted by the CDC, just published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, calculates the present spread of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes extends to 220 counties in 28 states and the District of Columbia, with the  highest concentrations in Southern California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and Florida.  It may be years before a vaccine is developed for these potentially deadly infections.

Transcript of video below:

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the purpose of mosquito control and
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specifically consolidated mosquito
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abatement district is to try to minimize
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the impact that mosquitoes have on our
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residents our mission is to reduce the
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populations of mosquitoes particularly
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this eighties agitated when 1860
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appeared in Clovis California in 2013 it
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really changed our program they are very
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aggressive species everybody was being
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bit by this mosquito Aedes aegypti is an
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invasive species which is the main
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vector for diseases like dengue fever
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Zika and chikungunya even though they’re
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not actively and currently transmitting
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disease in California it’s our job to
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try to stay ahead of these diseases so
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we’re really excited to be partnering
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with mosquito May and barely life
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sciences for the debug Fresno program
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debug Fresno is a study between the
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debug team at verily consolidated
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mosquito abatement district and mosquito
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main on the debug team at verily we aim
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to develop innovative technologies that
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can potentially get rid of DDT tip dye
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our goal is to have a decline in the
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adult population of 80 to 54 there’s
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other mosquito species out there as well
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so to do this we plan to release male
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mosquitoes and these male mosquitoes are
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carrying a bacteria called evolved
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akhiya and this bacteria very common it
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has this unique ability to change the
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reproductive behavior of mosquitoes
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there’s no genetic modification that’s
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going on then we release them into an
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environment where 8050 are established
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mel mosquitoes don’t bite they’ll go out
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into the environment they will meet with
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our female and the female will lay eggs
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but the eggs will never hatch then the
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next generation will be smaller and
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eventually we can possibly eliminate a
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local population so the goal of debug
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fresno in 2017 is to conduct a series of
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releases of sterile males starting in
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midsummer and lasting through the end of
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the mosquito
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this year and study whether or not we
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can reduce a ovulation of Egypt I so we
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are going to release males from our
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debug fresno van and you should expect
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to see heightened level of mosquito
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activity throughout the summer but no
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mosquitoes don’t bite and this is only
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going to be temporary hopefully you see
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less and less biting females mosquitoes
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do post harm to humans and we as humans
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want to reduce that potential damage
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eating to gypte is found throughout the
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world this is a truly global and
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enormous problem and in order for us to
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make a difference we need to make
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technology that can scale up and be
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deployed throughout the world we’re
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excited to be a part of a big program
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that could have really big impact all
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over the world