Disease Prevention: Google Laboratory Decides to Release Millions of Mosquitoes in Florida

(Digital Ittila) Florida: The technology company Google is going to release 32 million bacteria-infected mosquitoes in Florida, and experts are not surprised at all by this process. Through its decade-old but lesser-known program 'Debug', Google is working to reduce mosquito-borne diseases by combining software engineers, biologists, specialized insect-rearing robots, and artificial intelligence expertise.

Last year, the company filed for an experimental use permit, which is listed in the federal register, to inject mosquitoes with a specific strain of Wolbachia pipientis bacteria to prevent mosquito breeding. According to the Debug website, working with mosquitoes on such a massive scale has not been done before to stop the spread of diseases. Mosquitoes are fragile and difficult to breed in the required numbers. With Debug, the company is developing new technologies to make this possible.

According to the Federal Register notice, in the first year of the experiment, 16 million laboratory-reared and sterilized male mosquitoes will be released in Florida and California. Meanwhile, another 16 million mosquitoes will be released in the second year. However, it has not been clarified which city will be chosen for this experiment and when this test will take place.