Photo: eeandrey/123RF
Researchers say a new biological pest control method could significantly reduce the threat of insect pests such as disease-carrying mosquitoes.
The approach, which scientists called the Toxic Male Technique (TMT), targeted the lifespan of female insects.
Researchers at Sydney's Macquarie University said insect pests posed a growing threat to global health and agriculture, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, and millions of infections, and cost billions in healthcare and crop damage annually.
"Pesticides face declining effectiveness due to resistance and have caused harm to non-target species and ecosystems. Genetic biocontrol has emerged as a promising alternative," they said in a statement.
In mosquitoes, it is only the females that bite and transmit diseases such as malaria, dengue, Zika, chikungunya disease and yellow fever.
The new control method works by genetically engineering male insects to produce venom proteins in their semen.
When these males mated, the proteins were transferred to the female, reducing its lifespan and ability to spread disease.
The researchers said current techniques like the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) or insects carrying lethal genes (RIDL) worked by releasing massive numbers of sterilised or genetically modified males to mate with the wild females.
While these mated females produced no offspring or only male offspring, they continued to blood feed and spread diseases until they died naturally.
By immediately reducing the biting female population, researchers said TMT offered significant advantages over competing genetic biocontrol methods.
"Computer models predict that applying TMT to Aedes aegypti, a highly aggressive mosquito species primarily responsible for transmitting Dengue and Zika, could reduce blood-feeding rates - a key factor in disease transmission - by 40 to 60 percent compared to established methods."
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