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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : November 29, 2018 1:17 PM IST
Google’s parent company is working to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases around the world. © Shutterstock
Interestingly, Alphabet Inc., Google s parent company is working to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases around the world, starting with Fresno, California. According to Bloomberg reports, a unit of Alphabet known as Verily Life Sciences is releasing swarms of male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with a common bacterium that will cause their offspring to never hatch in Fresno.
Notably, it has been reported that in case the company's efforts go well, it plans to take the operation to places where such mosquitoes spread dengue fever and other diseases killing tens of thousands every year. They are an invasive species in Fresno, that arrived in 2013.
Jodi Holeman, the scientific services director for Fresno County s Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District quoted as saying, after we detected it, we did a massive and extensive effort to prevent the mosquito from establishing and eliminate it. We were not successful, in any way, shape or form.
Also, Bloomberg reports suggest that Verily's infected mosquitos could be the solution to the insect invasion. And, its program has cut the A. aegypti population by 95 percent this year. Moreover, it has launched a second project in Innisfail, Australia that had reduced the mosquito population by 80 percent when the program ended in June.
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