臭蚊子，看我讓你斷子絕孫

在CSIRO，Verily和詹姆斯庫克大學(xué)之間進(jìn)行跨國合作中，科學(xué)家們利用生物技術(shù)將數(shù)百萬只雄性埃及伊蚊絕育，然后在昆士蘭州的Cassowary海岸將它們釋放。

CSIRO Director of Health and Biosecurity Dr Rob Grenfell said the results were a major win in the fight against diseases-spreading mosquitoes.

CSIRO衛(wèi)生與生物安全局局長Rob Grenfell博士表示，這一結(jié)果是抗擊蚊媒傳染病的重大勝利。

"The invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito is one of the world’s most dangerous pests, capable of spreading devastating diseases like dengue, Zika and chikungunya and responsible for infecting millions of people with disease around the world each year," Dr Grenfell said.

“埃及伊蚊是世界上最危險(xiǎn)的害蟲之一，能夠傳播登革熱，寨卡病毒和基孔肯雅病毒等致命性的病毒，每年導(dǎo)致世界各地?cái)?shù)百萬人身染惡疾。”Grenfell博士說。

"Increased urbanisation and warming temperatures mean that more people are at risk, as these mosquitoes which were once relegated to areas near the equator forge past previous climatic boundaries.

“城市化和氣溫升高意味著更多人口處于危險(xiǎn)之中，因?yàn)檫@些蚊子曾經(jīng)只在赤道附近活動(dòng)，溫室效應(yīng)打破了之前氣候造成的限制。”

"Although the majority of mosquitoes don’t spread diseases, the three mostly deadly types the Aedes, Anopheles and Culex are found almost all over the world and are responsible for around 17 per cent of infectious disease transmissions globally."

“雖然大多數(shù)蚊子不傳播疾病，但伊蚊，按蚊和庫蚊這三種主要帶病蚊蟲幾乎遍布全球，要為全球約17%的傳染病病例負(fù)責(zé)。”

From November 2017 to June this year, non-biting male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes sterilised with the natural bacteria Wolbachia were released in trial zones along the Cassowary Coast in North Queensland.

從2017年11月到今年6月，科學(xué)家在昆士蘭北部的Cassowary海岸試驗(yàn)區(qū)釋放出感染了沃爾巴克氏菌(Wolbachia)的雄性埃及伊蚊，這種細(xì)菌會(huì)使蚊子喪失繁殖力。

They mated with local female mosquitoes, resulting in eggs that did not hatch and a significant reduction of their population.

它們與當(dāng)?shù)氐拇菩晕米咏慌?，?dǎo)致未孵化的卵和它們的種群顯著減少。

"Our heartfelt thanks goes out to the Innisfail community who literally opened their doors to our team, letting us install mosquito traps around their homes and businesses – we couldn’t have done this without your support," Dr Grenfell said.

“我們衷心感謝Innisfail社區(qū)，他們向我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)敞開了大門，讓我們?cè)诰用窦抑泻推髽I(yè)周圍安裝捕蚊陷阱——(??∀?)??嗨，如果沒有您的支持，我們就無法完成試驗(yàn)。”Grenfell博士說。

The process, known as the Sterile Insect Technique, has been successfully used since the 1950s but the challenge in making it work for mosquitoes like the Aedes aegypti has been rearing enough mosquitoes, removing biting females, identifying the males and then releasing the huge numbers needed to suppress a population.

這一過程被稱為昆蟲絕育術(shù)，自20世紀(jì)50年代以來被多次成功應(yīng)用，但為了應(yīng)對(duì)埃及伊蚊這樣的挑戰(zhàn)，過去一直無法培育足夠的蚊子?？茖W(xué)家需要剔除雌性蚊子，找到雄性蚊子，然后釋放巨大數(shù)量的絕育雄蚊來沖擊種群后代的規(guī)模。

To address this challenge, Verily, an affiliate of Alphabet Inc, developed a mosquito rearing and sex sorting and release technology as part of its global Debug project.

為了完成這一挑戰(zhàn)，Alphabet公司的子公司Verily開發(fā)出了蚊子飼養(yǎng)以及性別分選和釋放技術(shù)，作為其全球調(diào)試項(xiàng)目的一部分。

"We're very pleased to see strong suppression of these dangerous biting female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes," Verily’s Nigel Snoad said.

“我們很高興地看到成功抑制了伊蚊的種群規(guī)模。”Verily的Nigel Snoad說。

"We are particularly thankful to the people of Innisfail for their strong support, which has been incredible.

“我們特別感謝Innisfail的人們給予的大力支持，他們的配合態(tài)度令人難以置信。”

Scientists compared the number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes trapped in release sites and control zones to monitor and track populations.

科學(xué)家比較了在釋放地點(diǎn)和對(duì)照區(qū)捕獲的埃及伊蚊的數(shù)量，以監(jiān)測(cè)和跟蹤種群信息。

The millions of mosquitoes needed for the trial were reared at James Cook University in Cairns.

試驗(yàn)所需的數(shù)百萬只蚊子由詹姆斯庫克大學(xué)飼養(yǎng)。

To produce the three million male mosquitoes needed for the trial, researchers at James Cook University (JCU) in Cairns set out to raise almost 20 million Aedes aegypti.

為了產(chǎn)出試驗(yàn)所需的300萬只雄性蚊子，庫克大學(xué)(JCU)的研究人員總共籌集了近2000萬只埃及伊蚊。

"We allowed for the possibility of deaths during the process, as well as the need to sift out the female half of the population," Dr Kyran Staunton from James Cook University said.

庫克大學(xué)的Kyran Staunton博士說：“我們要考慮到在此過程中出現(xiàn)的死亡損耗，以及需要篩選出一半的雌性蚊子。”

"Verily's technology enabled us to do the sex sorting faster and with much higher accuracy."We learnt a lot from collaborating on this first tropical trial and we’re excited to see how this approach might be applied in other regions where Aedes aegypti poses a threat to life and health."

“Verily的技術(shù)使我們能夠更快更準(zhǔn)確地對(duì)蚊子進(jìn)行性別分類。我們從第一次合作中學(xué)到了很多東西，很高興看到這種方法可以應(yīng)用于埃及伊蚊肆虐的其他地區(qū)。”

"The health of our nation is paramount as we help Australia achieve its vision to become one of the healthiest nations on earth," CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said.

“國民的健康至關(guān)重要，我們將幫助澳大利亞實(shí)現(xiàn)向國民承諾的愿景：地球上最健康的國家之一。”CSIRO首席執(zhí)行官Larry Marshall博士說。

"By enabling industry partners like Verily to leverage the world-leading health capability we have built in CSIRO we can deliver this moonshot and tackle some of the world’s most wicked challenges with science."

“與 Verily這樣的機(jī)構(gòu)成為合作伙伴能夠發(fā)揮出我們CSIRO在醫(yī)療領(lǐng)域的專長，我們提供創(chuàng)造性的思考方式，用科學(xué)武器打敗世界上最邪惡的生物。”