Burkina Faso

Pest Species

Anopheles gambiae
Human malaria mosquito

Haut Bassins Region

Control Measure

Synopsis

Target Malaria is a not-for-profit research consortium developing gene drive technologies to reduce malaria transmission through vector population suppression.
The Research Institute of Health Sciences (IRSS) in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso is collaborating with Target Malaria’s product development and testing efforts
2019 the first genetically modified (and sterile) insect (mosquito, Anopheles gambiae) was released in Africa in the village of Bana, Burkina Faso.
This was an intermediate step by the Target Malaria gene drive research and development group in their development of a gene drive Anopheles gambiae mosquito that aims to suppress wild populations of the insect.
Additional trials involving genetically modified mosquitoes are planned.
There have been no releases of gene drive-containing mosquitoes.

Learn More

Scientists release sterile mosquitoes in Burkina to fight malaria

T. Ndiaga, Reuters, 2019.

Scientists in Burkina Faso have deployed a new weapon in the fight against malaria, and waded into a thorny bioethics debate, by letting loose thousands of genetically sterilized mosquitoes.Their experiment is the first outside the lab to release genetically altered mosquitoes in ...

Mark-release-recapture experiment in Burkina Faso demonstrates reduced fitness and dispersal of genetically-modified sterile malaria mosquitoes

F. A. Yao, A.-A. Millogo, P. S. Epopa, A. North, F. Noulin, K. Dao, M. Drabo, C. Guissou, S. Kekele, M. Namountougou, R. K. Ouedraogo, L. Pare, N. Barry, R. Sanou, H. Wandaogo, R. K. Dabire, A. McKemey, F. Tripet and A. Diabaté, Nature Communications, 13:796. 2022.

Every year, malaria kills approximately 405,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa, most of them children under the age of five years. In many countries, progress in malaria control has been threatened by the rapid spread of resistance to antimalarial drugs and insecticides. Novel ...

Target Malaria has a killer in its sights: Eliminating the world’s deadliest disease has been a priority for decades, and, thanks to innovative gene-drive technology, Target Malaria is getting closer to achieving that goal

Banks, J, IEEE Pulse, 7:30-33. 2016.

The mosquito is the deadliest animal in the world (Figure 1). It is the main carrier of parasites that cause malaria, which is a bigger killer than any other disease in history; in fact, some blame malaria for the deaths of half the humans who have ever lived. Today, malaria ...