Where Can You Buy Mosquitoes in Brazil?

Several mosquito-borne diseases are a global threat, including dengue, malaria, and Zika virus. It’s estimated that 1.2 million people were sick with dengue in Brazil last year. Fortunately, there are ways to combat mosquitoes. These include keeping the area around your home free of standing water, using bug spray, and getting rid of discarded tires.

Eliminate Dengue and Oxitec are both working toward reducing disease-carrying mosquitoes. While both projects have different funding models and scientific approaches, they share a common goal: preventing people from getting sick.

The nonprofit Eliminate Dengue is distributing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes, which protect against chikungunya, dengue, and malaria. Eliminate Dengue is also testing the scale-up of its releases in urban areas.

For the first release in 2009, the company rushed the organism into the field without consulting with regulators. It was criticized for doing so. But the project’s results impressed the health secretary in Piracicaba. The project has since advanced discussions with other municipalities.

The Brazilian headquarters of Oxitec is located in the industrial city of Campinas. Its facility smells of soggy fish food, used to feed mosquito larvae.

The company hopes to produce 30 million mosquitoes a week by fall. By then, they’ll have a new facility outside Piracicaba.

Aedes aegypti is the primary transmitter of dengue. It is harder to control than other mosquitoes. Pesticides are ineffective against Aegypti. Aedes aegypti can survive in low population densities.

In the field trials, Oxitec reported 96% reduction in mosquito population in a 0.16 square-kilometer release area. In the heavily sprayed release area, the lab-strain mosquitoes could not compete.

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