Australian scientists have announced their intention to release into the environment mosquitoes infected with a bacterium that prevents their transfer of dengue fever, reports New Scientist.

Previously, researchers at the University of Queensland in Brisbane found that the volbachah bacteria - a common insect parasite - reduces the ability of mosquitoes to carry the dengue virus. In addition, it halves the life of insects by half. This is extremely important, since only the elderly mosquitoes can be carriers of the virus.

Infection with wolbachia can occur vertically - that is, the bacterium infects the eggs of the infected female, so that the offspring will also be infected. According to researcher Scott O'Neill, this will lead to a rapid prevalence of infected mosquitoes over the uninfected, as uninfected mosquito mosquitoes can not have offspring from males with a bacterium, and infected ones can.

Infected with wolbachia mosquitoes are planned to release into the environment next year in Australia and Vietnam.

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