Sterilized trial slashes dengue-spreading mosquitoes

SYDNEY— More than 80 percent of a dengue fever-spreading mosquito has been wiped out in an Australian town during a landmark trial that scientists said on Tuesday offered hope for combating the dangerous pest globally. Researchers from Australia’s national science body, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, bred millions of nonbiting male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in laboratory conditions at James Cook University in a project funded by Google parent company Alphabet. The insects were infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, which renders them sterile. They were then released into the wild at trial sites around the Queensland town of Innisfail, where over three months they mated with females who laid eggs that did not hatch, causing the population to plummet.