Scientists use gut bacteria to prevent mosquito-borne diseases
Scientists use gut bacteria to prevent mosquito-borne diseases
Tags: Arbovirus, Dengue, North AmericaCGTN, 2024.
Chinese scientists have developed a more natural strategy to prevent mosquito-borne diseases by changing insects’ gut microbes, which might be used as an alternative to controversial experiments that see genetically-modified mosquitoes released in Florida. Mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue and Zika, cause several potentially fatal human viral infections. Dengue viruses infect approximately 390 million each year globally.
An epidemic survey over the past decade documented frequent dengue outbreaks in Xishuangbanna and Lincang, both in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. But few have been reported in neighboring cities of Wenshan and Pu’er. The marked different prevalence stimulated the curiosity of researchers from Tsinghua University and the Yunnan Academy of Animal Science and Veterinary Sciences.
