Spanish scientists are sterilizing an invasive mosquito species to help combat dengue fever in Europe, Reuters reports.
Warming global temperatures have fueled the spread of non-native dengue-carrying tiger mosquitoes across Europe, and the species has now spread to 13 EU countries, according to the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The spread has caused increased rates of dengue fever — there were 130 locally acquired cases of this potentially fatal illness across the region in 2023, compared to 71 in 2022, Euronews reports.
"It's a species that is becoming more common with climate change ... There is a favorable environment for its development for longer periods of time throughout the year, and its populations are increasing all the time," Vicente Dalmau of Valencia region's health, agriculture, and fisheries department, told Reuters.
The government-funded Biological Pest Control Centre in Valencia is hoping to combat the spread of this species by sterilizing and releasing 45,000 male tiger mosquitoes per week. These sterile males pair with females, helping to reduce the overall population.
This is not the first time scientists have investigated sterilization to help control mosquito populations.
For instance, researchers at Virginia Tech discovered that cross-breeding the species Aedes aegypti — also known as the yellow fever mosquito — with another species called Aedes mascarensis and then crossing them back with one parent resulted in offspring that were unable to reproduce 10% of the time. The team plans to use their findings to help curb mosquito populations.
Meanwhile, others are focusing on ways to keep people living in areas with high rates of mosquito-borne illnesses safe. Mosquito-blocking bed nets are one way that many people protect themselves from these insects, and new variations tested in several African countries are estimated to have saved close to 25,000 lives.
As for the new sterilization plan in Spain, biologist David Almenart told Yahoo! News: "We are preparing to ensure that diseases such as zika, dengue, and chikungunya are not transmitted in Europe. If we eliminate the mosquitoes that transmit them, we eliminate the potential risk of transmission of these diseases."
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