臭蚊子，看我让你断子绝孙

在CSIRO，Verily和詹姆斯库克大学之间进行跨国合作中，科学家们利用生物技术将数百万只雄性埃及伊蚊绝育，然后在昆士兰州的Cassowary海岸将它们释放。

CSIRO Director of Health and Biosecurity Dr Rob Grenfell said the results were a major win in the fight against diseases-spreading mosquitoes.

CSIRO卫生与生物安全局局长Rob Grenfell博士表示，这一结果是抗击蚊媒传染病的重大胜利。

"The invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito is one of the world’s most dangerous pests, capable of spreading devastating diseases like dengue, Zika and chikungunya and responsible for infecting millions of people with disease around the world each year," Dr Grenfell said.

“埃及伊蚊是世界上最危险的害虫之一，能够传播登革热，寨卡病毒和基孔肯雅病毒等致命性的病毒，每年导致世界各地数百万人身染恶疾。”Grenfell博士说。

"Increased urbanisation and warming temperatures mean that more people are at risk, as these mosquitoes which were once relegated to areas near the equator forge past previous climatic boundaries.

“城市化和气温升高意味着更多人口处于危险之中，因为这些蚊子曾经只在赤道附近活动，温室效应打破了之前气候造成的限制。”

"Although the majority of mosquitoes don’t spread diseases, the three mostly deadly types the Aedes, Anopheles and Culex are found almost all over the world and are responsible for around 17 per cent of infectious disease transmissions globally."

“虽然大多数蚊子不传播疾病，但伊蚊，按蚊和库蚊这三种主要带病蚊虫几乎遍布全球，要为全球约17%的传染病病例负责。”

From November 2017 to June this year, non-biting male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes sterilised with the natural bacteria Wolbachia were released in trial zones along the Cassowary Coast in North Queensland.

从2017年11月到今年6月，科学家在昆士兰北部的Cassowary海岸试验区释放出感染了沃尔巴克氏菌(Wolbachia)的雄性埃及伊蚊，这种细菌会使蚊子丧失繁殖力。

They mated with local female mosquitoes, resulting in eggs that did not hatch and a significant reduction of their population.

它们与当地的雌性蚊子交配，导致未孵化的卵和它们的种群显著减少。

"Our heartfelt thanks goes out to the Innisfail community who literally opened their doors to our team, letting us install mosquito traps around their homes and businesses – we couldn’t have done this without your support," Dr Grenfell said.

“我们衷心感谢Innisfail社区，他们向我们的团队敞开了大门，让我们在居民家中和企业周围安装捕蚊陷阱——(｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ嗨，如果没有您的支持，我们就无法完成试验。”Grenfell博士说。

The process, known as the Sterile Insect Technique, has been successfully used since the 1950s but the challenge in making it work for mosquitoes like the Aedes aegypti has been rearing enough mosquitoes, removing biting females, identifying the males and then releasing the huge numbers needed to suppress a population.

这一过程被称为昆虫绝育术，自20世纪50年代以来被多次成功应用，但为了应对埃及伊蚊这样的挑战，过去一直无法培育足够的蚊子。科学家需要剔除雌性蚊子，找到雄性蚊子，然后释放巨大数量的绝育雄蚊来冲击种群后代的规模。

To address this challenge, Verily, an affiliate of Alphabet Inc, developed a mosquito rearing and sex sorting and release technology as part of its global Debug project.

为了完成这一挑战，Alphabet公司的子公司Verily开发出了蚊子饲养以及性别分选和释放技术，作为其全球调试项目的一部分。

"We're very pleased to see strong suppression of these dangerous biting female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes," Verily’s Nigel Snoad said.

“我们很高兴地看到成功抑制了伊蚊的种群规模。”Verily的Nigel Snoad说。

"We are particularly thankful to the people of Innisfail for their strong support, which has been incredible.

“我们特别感谢Innisfail的人们给予的大力支持，他们的配合态度令人难以置信。”

Scientists compared the number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes trapped in release sites and control zones to monitor and track populations.

科学家比较了在释放地点和对照区捕获的埃及伊蚊的数量，以监测和跟踪种群信息。

The millions of mosquitoes needed for the trial were reared at James Cook University in Cairns.

试验所需的数百万只蚊子由詹姆斯库克大学饲养。

To produce the three million male mosquitoes needed for the trial, researchers at James Cook University (JCU) in Cairns set out to raise almost 20 million Aedes aegypti.

为了产出试验所需的300万只雄性蚊子，库克大学(JCU)的研究人员总共筹集了近2000万只埃及伊蚊。

"We allowed for the possibility of deaths during the process, as well as the need to sift out the female half of the population," Dr Kyran Staunton from James Cook University said.

库克大学的Kyran Staunton博士说：“我们要考虑到在此过程中出现的死亡损耗，以及需要筛选出一半的雌性蚊子。”

"Verily's technology enabled us to do the sex sorting faster and with much higher accuracy."We learnt a lot from collaborating on this first tropical trial and we’re excited to see how this approach might be applied in other regions where Aedes aegypti poses a threat to life and health."

“Verily的技术使我们能够更快更准确地对蚊子进行性别分类。我们从第一次合作中学到了很多东西，很高兴看到这种方法可以应用于埃及伊蚊肆虐的其他地区。”

"The health of our nation is paramount as we help Australia achieve its vision to become one of the healthiest nations on earth," CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said.

“国民的健康至关重要，我们将帮助澳大利亚实现向国民承诺的愿景：地球上最健康的国家之一。”CSIRO首席执行官Larry Marshall博士说。

"By enabling industry partners like Verily to leverage the world-leading health capability we have built in CSIRO we can deliver this moonshot and tackle some of the world’s most wicked challenges with science."

“与 Verily这样的机构成为合作伙伴能够发挥出我们CSIRO在医疗领域的专长，我们提供创造性的思考方式，用科学武器打败世界上最邪恶的生物。”