The technology we are proposing is an innovative method, with high environmental sustainability, for suppressing the Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus).
As well known mosquito males do not bite and are absolutely harmless. The technology we propose is based on the release in the environment,of a particular strain of male mosquitoes, which have the capacity to sterilize wild females once they mate with them.
To obtain this function we had to produce a new line of tiger mosquitoes replacing the resident microflora occurring in the reproductive system (mostly bacteria of the genus Wolbachia) with a variant of the same bacterium that lives in the common mosquito Culex pipiens.
This association is the result of a biotechnological research work carried out in ENEA laboratories that has allowed to obtain a new tiger mosquito line (called ARWP) whose males are fertile when they mate with the females of the same line (allowing to raise it intensively) but they render sterile all the eggs of the wild females with which they mate. The release of ARwP males, in an environment infested with tiger mosquitoes, allows us to reduce the number of mosquitoes, reducing, consequently, the epidemiological risks. This approach is currently classified as "Biocide Biological" and once registered on ECHA, the Ministry of Health and the Environment, upon specific request by ENEA and a private partner have recently approved the experimental use in Italy for ascertained absence of biological risks , environmental and health.