Modelling the Wolbachia incompatible insect technique: strategies for effective mosquito population elimination

DE Pagendam et al., 2020, National Library of Medicine

The Wolbachia incompatible insect technique shows promise as a method for eliminating populations of invasive mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti and reducing the incidence of vector-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika. Successful implementation of this biological control strategy relies on high-fidelity separation of male from female insects in mass production systems for inundative release into landscapes. Processes for sex-separating mosquitoes are typically error-prone and laborious, and IIT programmes run the risk of releasing Wolbachia-infected females and replacing wild mosquito populations.