The bacteria, which occurs naturally in about 28 percent of wild
mosquitoes, causes infected males to sterilize the females they mate
with.
Every week, scientists in southern China release 3 million bacteria-infected mosquitoes on a 3 km (two-mile) long island in a bid to wipe out diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika.
The
scientists inject mosquito eggs with wolbachia bacteria in a
laboratory, then release infected male mosquitoes on the island on the
outskirts of the city of Guangzhou.
The bacteria,
which occurs naturally in about 28 percent of wild mosquitoes, causes
infected males to sterilize the females they mate with.
"The aim is trying to suppress the mosquito density below the threshold which can cause disease transmission,"
said Zhiyong Xi, who is director of the Sun Yat-sen University Centre
of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases and pioneered the idea.
"There are hot spots," Xi said. "This technology can be used at the beginning to target the hot spots ... it will dramatically reduce disease transmission."
Mosquito-borne
diseases are responsible for more than one million deaths worldwide
every year and Zika has become a concern for athletes at this year's
Olympic Games, which open in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.
Some athletes, including the top four ranked male golfers, have declined to take part.
An
outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil last year has spread through the
Americas and beyond, with China confirming its first case in February.
U.S.
health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women
can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that
can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.
The World Health Organization
has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause
Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary
paralysis in adults.
Sun Yat-sen's Xi said that several countries had expressed interest in his experiments, especially Brazil and Mexico.
In
the laboratory, mosquito eggs are collected from breeding cages
containing 5,000 females and 1,600 males and injected with the wolbachia
bacteria. Xi's facility has the capacity to breed up to five million
mosquitoes a week.
While a female mosquito that
acquires wolbachia by mating is sterile, one that is infected by
injection will produce wolbachia-infected offspring. Dengue, yellow
fever and Zika are also suppressed in wolbachia-injected females, making
it harder for the diseases to be transmitted to humans.
Xi
set up his 3,500 square metre (38,000 sq ft) "mosquito factory" in 2012
and releases the males into two residential areas on the outskirts of
Guangzhou.
Xi said the mosquito population on the island has been reduced by more than 90 percent.
One
villager on the island, 66 year-old Liang Jintian, who has lived there
for six decades, said the study was so effective he didn't have to sleep
with a mosquito net any longer.
"We used to
have a lot of mosquitoes in the past. Back then some people were worried
that if mosquitoes were released here, we would get even more
mosquitoes," he said. "We have a lot less mosquitoes now compared to the past."
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