‘Operation mosquito’ – Firm eyes breeding dengue-free pest

by Emmanuel Joseph

Health authorities are mulling a business firm’s proposal aimed to “drastically” reduce the population of dengue-carrying mosquitoes across the Caribbean, thereby curbing the surge in the illnesses they bring.

As dengue fever cases reach record levels across the region, a Barbados-based company, Orbit Services Partners Inc. revealed on Friday that it has put forward a solution that does not kill the pests but breeds a less harmful version of the species.

It is partnering with Verily, a health technology company based in San Francisco, for a project involving the large-scale release of male mosquitoes that are bred with a bacterium that blocks the dengue virus.

Chairman of Orbit Services Anthony DaSilva indicated that discussions have taken place with government officials across the region.

He told Barbados TODAY: “The government of Barbados has expressed a willingness to listen and to take a presentation. The government has not made any firm commitment, but we have gone ahead and we have secured the licence arrangement with Verily for the entire Caribbean, with the exception . . . of the British Virgin Islands and Cuba.”

The initiative aims to move away from conventional vector control methods, such as chemical insecticides, against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which is responsible for diseases like zika fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever.

DaSilva explained the plan to reduce the mosquito population by introducing sterile mosquitoes containing Wolbachia bacterium that breed with female mosquitoes.

This approach, he noted, leads to a diminishing population over time and a correlated decrease in disease transmission.

Pointing out that the male mosquito is unable to bite because it does not have the apparatus to do so, DaSilva said that when the males are released in the wild, residents need not fear.

“By releasing males, it creates no greater incidence of nuisance because they don’t bite. But what they do is mate with the wild population of females.

“Normally, female mosquitoes only breed once in their average life span of approximately seven days, and if you can make the result of that mating, nothing, and you can do that on a scale, then you can certainly suppress the population. Once you suppress the population, you can minimise drastically the incidence of the transmission of the diseases,” he explained.

Acknowledging a three-year effort hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, DaSilva revealed that the proposal is still awaiting approval in individual Caribbean nations.

Mosquito-breeding trials are being conducted in various parts of the world, he said, highlighting Singapore as an example where populations in controlled areas have been suppressed by as much as 90 per cent.

“If we can get islands in the Caribbean to sign on to this and to allow us to use this, we could have a significant impact,” DaSilva told Barbados TODAY.

“The studies are there to show. We just need to be able to make it affordable and make it commercially viable.”

The Caribbean, along with the Americas, has reported over four million dengue cases this year, marking the highest number since record-keeping commenced in 1980.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb