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 Firms including Microsoft Corp and California life sciences company
Verily are forming partnerships with public health officials in
several U.S. states to test new high-tech tools.
In Texas, Microsoft is testing a smart trap to isolate and capture
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, known Zika carriers, for study by
entomologists to give them a jump on predicting outbreaks.
Verily, Alphabet's life sciences division based in Mountain View,
California, is speeding the process for creating sterile male
mosquitoes to mate with females in the wild, offering a form of
birth control for the species.
While it may take years for these advances to become widely
available, public health experts say new players brings fresh
thinking to vector control, which still relies heavily on
traditional defenses such as larvicides and insecticides. "It's
exciting when technology companies come on board," said Anandasankar
Ray, an associate professor of entomology at the University of
California, Riverside. "Their approach to a biological challenge is
to engineer a solution."
SMART TRAPS
The Zika epidemic that emerged in Brazil in 2015 and left thousands
of babies suffering from birth defects has added urgency to the
effort.
While cases there have slowed markedly, mosquitoes capable of
carrying the virus - Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus - are
spreading in the Americas, including large swaths of the southern
United States.
(For a map of U.S. mosquito territory, see http://tmsnrt.rs/2tqlJHa)
The vast majority of the 5,365 Zika cases reported in the United
States so far are from travelers who contracted the virus elsewhere.
Still, two states – Texas and Florida – have recorded cases
transmitted by local mosquitoes, making them prime testing grounds
for new technology.
In Texas, 10 mosquito traps made by Microsoft are operating in
Harris County, which includes the city of Houston.
Roughly the size of large birdhouses, the devices use robotics,
infrared sensors, machine learning and cloud computing to help
health officials keep tabs on potential disease carriers.
Texas recorded six cases of local mosquito transmission of Zika in
November and December of last year. Experts believe the actual
number is likely higher because most infected people do not develop
symptoms.
Pregnant women are at high risk because they can pass the virus to
their fetuses, resulting in a variety of birth defects. Those
include microcephaly, a condition in which infants are born with
undersized skulls and brains. The World Health Organization declared
Zika a global health emergency in February 2016.
Most conventional mosquito traps capture all comers - moths, flies,
other mosquito varieties - leaving a pile of specimens for
entomologists to sort through. The Microsoft machines differentiate
insects by measuring a feature unique to each species: the shadows
cast by their beating wings. When a trap detects an Aedes aegypti in
one of its 64 chambers, the door slams shut.
The machine "makes a decision about whether to trap it," said Ethan
Jackson, a Microsoft engineer who is developing the device.
The Houston tests, begun last summer, showed the traps could detect
Aedes aegypti and other medically important mosquitoes with 85
percent accuracy, Jackson said.
The machines also record shadows made by other insects as well as
environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity. The data
can be used to build models to predict where and when mosquitoes are
active.
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Mustapha Debboun, director of Harris County’s mosquito and vector
control division, said the traps save time and give researchers more
insight into mosquito behavior. "For science and research, this is a
dream come true," he said.
The traps are prototypes now. But Microsoft's Jackson said the
company eventually hopes to sell them for a few hundred dollars
each, roughly the price of conventional traps. The goal is to spur
wide adoption, particularly in developing countries, to detect
potential epidemics before they start.
"What we hope is (the traps) will allow us to bring more precision
to public health," Jackson said.
SORTING MOSQUITOES WITH ROBOTS
Other companies, meanwhile, are developing technology to shrink
mosquito populations by rendering male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
sterile. When these sterile males mate with females in the wild,
their eggs don't hatch.
The strategy offers an alternative to chemical pesticides. But it
requires the release of millions of laboratory-bred mosquitoes into
the outdoors. Males don't bite, which has made this an easier sell
to places now hosting tests.
Oxitec, an Oxford, England-based division of Germantown,
Maryland-based Intrexon Corp, is creating male mosquitoes
genetically modified to be sterile. It has already deployed them in
Brazil, and is seeking regulatory approval for tests in Florida and
Texas.
MosquitoMate Inc, a startup formed by researchers at the University
of Kentucky, is using a naturally occurring bacterium called
Wolbachia to render male mosquitoes sterile.
One of the biggest challenges is sorting the sexes.
At MosquitoMate's labs in Lexington, immature mosquitoes are forced
through a sieve-like mechanism that separates the smaller males from
the females. These mosquitoes are then hand sorted to weed out any
stray females that slip through.
"That's basically done using eyeballs," said Stephen Dobson,
MosquitoMate's chief executive.
Enter Verily. The company is automating mosquito sorting with robots
to make it faster and more affordable. Company officials declined to
be interviewed. But on its website, Verily says it's combining
sensors, algorithms and "novel engineering" to speed the process.
Verily and MosquitoMate have teamed up to test their technology in
Fresno, California, where Aedes aegypti arrived in 2013.
Officials worry that residents who contract Zika elsewhere could
spread it in Fresno if they're bitten by local mosquitoes that could
pass the virus to others.
“That is very much of a concern because it is the primary vector for
diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and obviously Zika,” said Steve
Mulligan, manager of the Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District in
Fresno County.
The study, which still needs state and federal approval, is slated
for later this summer.
(Editing by Marla Dickerson)
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