Eliminating disease-carrying mosquitoes is not an easy mission nor can it be carried out improvisedly. And if not, tell Verily, the subsidiary of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), which has been trying since 2017 with his DebugProject. How are they doing it? With artificial intelligence, robots and, as incredible as it may sound, with many, many mosquitoes.
Verily’s latest move has been formally request to the United States Environmental Protection Agency permission to release up to 64 million mosquitoes over the next two years in the states of California and Florida.
64 million mosquitoes in your area. Verily has asked the EPA for authorization to release up to 32 million male mosquitoes of the species Culex quinquefasciatus bacteria carriers Wolbachia pipientis for two years in Florida and California respectively at a rate of 16 million the first year and another 16 million the next.
At the time of this writing the public comment period was about to close (June 5). From that moment, the EPA makes the decision whether to approve it or not or whether to put conditions on the test. The objective of this mosquito bombardment that works as a biological pesticide is to obtain the necessary field data to, with EPA permission, market this pest control solution.
Why is it important. The Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito is an old and feared acquaintance: it is the species responsible for transmitting the parasites of the avian malariaviruses West Nileof the rift valley fever and of the St. Louis encephalitis. West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne illness in the continental United States, causing an average of 2,000 cases of illness per year and about 120 deaths. according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On a global scale, the problem is greater: there is approximately 400 million cases of dengue per year and are estimated about 40,000 associated deaths. Finding a solution without chemical insecticides through biological control can be a true public health milestone with global impact.
Context. There are compelling scientific reasons behind it: in Singapore, a clinical trial with more than 700,000 residents demonstrated that releases of mosquitoes with Wolbachia reduced the risk of dengue by more than 70%. Without going any further, the Debug Project free more than 10 million male mosquitoes per week in Singapore. In Fresno, California, between 7.5 and 14.4 million infected male mosquitoes were released between 2017 and 2018. The result was a reduction in the mosquito vector population of up to 93-95%.
In detail. The mechanism behind this “biological pesticide” is relatively simple: only male (non-biting) mosquitoes that have been inoculated with Wolbachia are released. When they mate with wild females that do not have the same bacterial strain, the resulting eggs do not hatch. As several releases occur, the local population is reduced. And what does all this have to do with AI? Google uses artificial intelligence and automation to separate mosquitoes by sex, breed them and release them on a large scale and in a systematic way.
Yes, but. All that glitters is not gold. The bacteria does not work with 100% reliability in all cases, as evidence this 2024 study where they concluded that between 6% and 75% of the eggs could produce live embryos under certain conditions. Come on, there is no guaranteed 100% sterility. On the other hand, in 2022 another study from the Verily/Debug team itself Google revealed that automated mosquito release systems were still in “prototype stages or very early versions.”
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Cover | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Karollyne Videira Hubert
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