The Sterile Insect Technique: can established technology beat malaria?
The Sterile Insect Technique: can established technology beat malaria?
Tags: Africa, Anopheles, Mosquitoes, Sterile insect technique (SIT)M. E. H. Helinski, B. El-Sayed and B. G. J. Knols, Entomologische Berichten, 66:13-20. 2006.
The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is the mass production, sterilisation and subsequent release of sterile insects into a target population in an area-wide integrated approach. The released sterile males mate with wild females; they thus no longer produce offspring and therefore the size of the target population is reduced. Over the years, SIT has proven to be a safe, effective and environmentally sound method to suppress, eliminate or contain pest populations. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a long history of supporting SIT programmes against key insect pests, including fruit flies, tsetse flies and moths. Recently, an integrated five year study to assess the feasibility of SIT to control African malaria mosquitoes has been initiated. In this article, we discuss the components and research requirements for such a feasibility study including sexing, mass production, sterilisation and release methodologies.