Innovative, Operational Non-Chemical Approaches to Mosquito Control Symposium I
Innovative, Operational Non-Chemical Approaches to Mosquito Control Symposium I
Wolbachia based incompatible insect technique (IIT) has been leveraged to control Aedes and Culex mosquito populations in the field. Debug, based at Verily Life Sciences in California, has partnered with Birds Not Mosquitoes (BNM), a multi-agency partnership that is urgently working to save the native honeycreeper birds of Hawaiʻi from extinction driven by the transmission of avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum), to develop an IIT system for suppression of Cx. quinquefasciatus in Hawaiʻi.
In Culex sp., a number of naturally occuring wPip Wolbachia forms exist that exhibit complex incompatibility interactions. With an aim of generating a universally incompatible Culex line, we have performed Wolbachia transinfections of wAlbB from Ae. albopictus into Cx. quinquefasciatus previously cleared of endogenous wPip. The DQB (Debug Cx. quinquefasciatus wAlbB) line has been tested for phenotypes pertinent to population suppression via release of sterile (Wolbachia) males, and confirmed to function as expected. Debug has also optimized automated larval mass rearing and pupal and adult sex sorting pipelines to support mass production and release of DQB males. Additionally, Debug has developed packing and shipping protocols to support transport of DQB males from Verily in California to release sites in Hawaiʻi (Maui and Kauai). The mountainous and densely vegetated habitat of the native Hawaiian Honeycreeper means aerial release of mosquitoes will be necessary for deployment of DQB males, and Debug and partners are also developing aerial release systems using compostable packets of DQB males.
After the recent EPA approval of a Section 18 Emergency Use Permit for the release of DQB3 males on Hawaiʻi, Debug and partners hope to begin testing the IIT system for suppression of Cx. quinquefasciatus in the coming months.