According to the operator, the world’s first industrial farm for breeding mosquitoes is to be built in Australia.
The aim is to be able to take action more successfully against mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever, zika or chikungunya. The aid organization World Mosquito Program (WMP) has teamed up for the project with the French start-up InnovaFeed, which has previously specialized in the production of insect protein for animal feed.
The new facility in Australia will work on methods to curb the transmission of mosquitoes. Around ten years ago, the WMP had already developed a method in which female mosquitoes are infected with the Wolbachia bacterium. This reduces the likelihood that other viruses such as dengue fever will multiply in the mosquito’s body. Research in Indonesia showed that dengue fever infections in the affected areas decreased by 77 percent within three years.
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