Scientists are developing a biological control method for malaria that uses larvae-eating fish to control mosquito populations in rain-fed pools.

Tanzania’s Tropical Pesticide Research Institute (TPRI) is collaborating with the US-based Poseidon Science Foundation to investigate the best way to mass-produce and disseminate the fish embryos for eventual use in areas where malaria is endemic.

The fish that is utilized to control the malaria is not a new idea, but the method has been restricted previously to permanent bodies of water. But in many areas high-risk of malaria, coming with the rains that create pools in which the larvae of mosquitos grow.

The Tanzanian fish species Nothobranchius guentheri is an annual species; the adults die off yearly, leaving its embryos in a state of animation suspended when the water goes back. The embryos leave the egg when the rainy season begins and is fed of the larvae of mosquito, that the egg around the same time leaves.

The embryos of the fish can survive in pools as small as done depressions by the feet of elephants.

Image to link: Science Blogs

Related Posts