Executive Summary
The World Mosquito Program recently developed a technique to control dengue transmission by releasing Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Wolbachia bacteria act as a virus-blocking agent and are maternally transmitted to the local mosquito populations. However, scaling ground-based releases to large geographic areas poses a challenge.
To address this, Lin et al. developed an automated mosquito dosing release system and incorporated it into an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV). This system, which includes temperature and humidity control, is designed to release 150 mosquitos per dose. Two successful field trials in Fiji demonstrated that the UAV-based release achieved similar uniformity to ground release methods and successfully established Wolbachia infections in the native population over a 2-km2 area.
Publication: Science Robotics
Date: 31 July 2024
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