RESEARCHERS may have uncovered the key to wiping out potentially deadly dengue fever and malaria by giving disease-carrying mozzies a taste of their own medicine.
Funded by Microsoft boss Bill Gates' charitable foundation, scientists at the University of Queensland are experimenting with bacteria that kill the bloodsuckers before they are old enough to spread disease.
And if they can replicate lab results in the field, dengue may one day be wiped out, followed by other mozzie-borne scourges such as malaria.
"Our idea is that we can transfer the bacterial agent into the mosquito and shorten the life span," project leader Prof Scott O'Neill told The Cairns Post.
"It (dengue) has to incubate in the mosquito body for about 12 days before it can transmit the disease.
"Really quite old mosquitoes transmit dengue and malaria.
"If it works we could try it with malaria."
Tests at the University of Queensland in Brisbane have centred on Aedes aegypti, the mozzies that spark dengue outbreaks.
But researchers are now transferring a bacterial parasite called Wolbachia pipientis into the mosquitoes.
Three years into a five year trial they have succeeded in halving Aedes aegypti's life span.
"If we could get that result in field conditions, it would be enough to have a major impact," Prof O'Neill said.
"If it all went perfectly then it has the potential to eliminate dengue."
But he said: "I don't want to say that. Don't hex it for me."
Next the project will trial Wolbachia infection on mozzies in outdoor cages and eventually by field tests.
"Our hope is in the future, over the next 10 years or so, we'd be able to consider an implementation program in North Queensland, Vietnam and Thailand as pilot studies," Prof O'Neill said.
