How does NEA mass-produce Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for release?
Wolbachia is maternally transmitted. Female Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti pass the bacterium down via their eggs to their offspring, thus generating a stable line of Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes. Rearing this line in NEA’s mosquito production facility allows us to easily produce large numbers of male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes for our releases, without the need for further egg microinjection.
How do we know that the male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes we release carry Wolbachia?
We conduct regular checks to ensure that maternal transmission of Wolbachia is stable in our Wolbachia-Aedes mosquito line. This gives us confidence that the male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes we release do indeed carry Wolbachia.