Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) for Dengue Control – Diligent IAS 27/08/2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags:

STERILE INSECT TECHNIQUE (SIT) FOR DENGUE CONTROL

 

For: Preliminary

Topics covered: About the Sterile Insect Technique, Dengue

 

News Flash

Bangladesh considering ‘mosquito fights mosquito technique’ for Dengue Control. Bangladesh is studying the feasibility of applying the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) to control the dengue outbreak.

 

Sterile Insect Technique (SIT)

  • The sterile insect technique is an environmentally-friendly insect pest control method.
  • It involves the mass-rearing and sterilization, using radiation, of a target pest, followed by the systematic area-wide release of the sterile males by air over defined areas, where they mate with wild females resulting in no offspring and a declining pest population.
  • Irradiation, such as with gamma rays and X-rays, is used to sterilize mass-reared insects so that, while they remain sexually competitive, they cannot produce offspring.
  • SIT does not involve transgenic (genetic engineering) processes.
  • This breakthrough technology has been tested successfully at two sites in Guangzhou in China.

 

Need of the hour

Bangladesh has been in the grip of an unprecedented dengue outbreak this year. Close to 58,000 people have been being infected with dengue so far.

 

Background

  • The sterile insect technique was first developed in the USA and has been used successfully for more than 60 years.
  • The four strategic options in which sterile insects are being deployed as a component of area-wide integrated pest management are: suppression, eradication, containment and prevention.
  • Integrated with other control methods, the SIT has been successful in controlling a number of high-profile insect pests, including fruit flies (Mediterranean fruit fly, Mexican fruit fly, oriental fruit fly, melon fly); tsetse fly; screwworm; moths (codling moth, pink bollworm, false codling moth, cactus moth, and the Australian painted apple moth); and mosquitoes.

 

What is Dengue?

  • Dengue is fast emerging pandemic-prone viral disease in many parts of the world.
  • Dengue flourishes in urban poor areas, suburbs and the countryside but also affects more affluent neighbourhoods in tropical and subtropical countries.
  • It is a mosquito-borne viral infection causing a severe flu-like illness.

 

Virus

The dengue virus (DEN) comprises four distinct serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4) which belong to the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae.

 

Mosquito

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the main vector that transmits the viruses that cause dengue. The viruses are passed on to humans through the bites of an infective female Aedes mosquito, which mainly acquires the virus while feeding on the blood of an infected person.

 

Way ahead

A team of experts from WHO-FAO and IAEA is discussing the feasibility of this technique.

 

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency

 

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