Inside Verily’s plan to fight mosquitoes with 20 million more mosquitoes
Today, Verily — formerly Google Life Sciences — began releasing bacteria-infected male mosquitoes in Fresno, California.
The release marks the launch of Debug Fresno, a field study that aims to rid the central California county of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Also known as yellow fever mosquitoes, they first arrived in the area in 2013 and are known to spread the Zika virus, dengue, and chikungunya (although none of these viruses are currently spreading in Fresno).
Verily is working with Fresno’s Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District to release 1 million male mosquitoes every week for 20 weeks, starting now. These mosquitoes have been rendered essentially sterile by infection with a bacteria called Wolbachia pipientis, which naturally…
