Far North project really putting bite on mozzies

SCIENTISTS have hailed a world-first breakthrough in wiping out up to 90 per cent of deadly disease-carrying mosquitoes in a trial in Far North Queensland.

The CSIRO study, to be made public today, released three million sterilised male Aedes aegypti mozzies into three tiny sugar towns near Innisfail and almost completely eradicated the dangerous bugs known to carry dengue, zika, yellow fever and chikungunya.

Researchers hope the land- mark findings can help prevent global mosquito-borne viral outbreaks of the potentially fatal diseases.

“This is a substantial step forward in our ability to eradicate exotic mosquitoes,’’ said CSIRO Research Director Dr Paul De Barro.

“We can show this knocks the mozzie population right down.”

With the Asian Tiger mosquito on our doorstep in the Torres Strait, it has been a race against time to control the bloodsucking insects.

“We’ve found how to get rid of mosquitoes altogether,’’ Dr De Barro said. “We don’t want the Asian Tiger, also known as the ‘barbecue stopper’ for their biting prowess, getting into mainland Australia.”

“The CSIRO had to look forward strategically to meet a major biosecurity threat.”

The Debug Innisfail project used male mosquitoes infected with a strain of wolbachia which, when mated with females, caused the mozzie population to crash.

Preliminary data shows more than 80 per cent of the population was wiped out, but with further analysis, that figure is expected to be closer to 90 per cent. It is different to Eliminate Dengue, a World Mosquito Program funded by the Gates Foundation, which sterilises mosquitoes, but does not eradicate them.

The CSIRO hopes the new technology can be used around the world in a significant step towards the global fight against infectious diseases.

One of the world’s biggest killers, the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, infect almost 400 million people with diseases every year.

They are linked to 20,000 deaths a year from dengue alone – and can be found 200km north of Brisbane. In Queensland, there have been about 4400 cases of locally acquired dengue – a painful and debilitating fever – and three deaths since 1999.

Under the Debug Innisfail project, the tiny towns of Mourilyan, Goondi Bend, and South Johnstone became ground zero for the release of three million mosquitoes.

The CSIRO, James Cook University, and Verily (a Google affiliate) international team released, on average, 75 mosquitoes per home, three times a week.

Three other nearby towns, without the imported mozzies, were part of the compare and contrast study.

“It’s a lot of mozzies into one area,” said JCU’s Dr Kyran Staunton.

“But they were non-biting males, so nobody had to be worried about being eaten alive by mosquitoes.”

He bred millions of mosquitoes, fed on cow liver powder, honey and fish food, for the project.