世界最大“蚊子工厂”生产出绝育蚊子 .

2017-08-13 作者： 202阅读

　　International Atomic Energy Agency Deputy Director Yang Dazhu visited the world’s biggest "mosquito factory" in Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province on July 22. The factory pumps out around 3 million mosquitoes a week, all infected with a bacteria that means these pests will help fight the spread of diseases like Zika, malaria and yellow fever.

　　7月22日，国际原子能研究机构副总干事杨大助到访位于广东省广州的世界最大“蚊子工厂”。这个工厂每周生产300万只携带特定菌的蚊子，进而利用这些目标害虫帮助控制传染疾病，如齐卡、疟疾和黄热病。

　　Professor Xi Zhiyong of Sun Yat-sen University developed a technique in which male mosquitoes infected with a naturally-occurring bacteria called wolbachia, which causes any eggs laid after they mate with a female to never hatch, are released into the wild to reduce the insect’s population.

　　中山大学教授悉志勇研发了一种感染雄性蚊子自然生产的沃尔巴克氏体细菌技术。这项技术会造成雄性蚊子与雌性蚊子交配产卵后不会孵化。这种雄性蚊子放到野外将可减少蚊子的数量。

　　First, mosquito eggs are injected with wolbachia around 90 minutes after they are laid. Researchers can inject up to 200 eggs a day.

　　首先，蚊卵产出90分钟左右注射沃尔巴克氏体。研究人员一天可注射达200只卵。

　　These eggs are then placed into cages that contain three females for every male. Each cage of 4,000 mosquitoes can produce between 150,000 and 200,000 eggs.

　　然后这些卵被放入饲养笼，按3：1的比例饲养雄蚊和雌蚊。每个饲养笼中的4000只蚊子可生产15万至20万只蚊子。

　　Thirdly, the eggs are then hatched in special containers that can each hold up to 18,000 larvae each.

　　第三，虫卵在可容纳1.8万幼虫的特殊容器中孵化。

　　Fourthly, the smaller females are then separated from the larger males by filtering the insects through a glass sheet that only allows females to pass through.

　　第四使用只能允许相对雄蚊体型更小的雌蚊通过的玻璃片来分离出雄蚊。

　　Any females remaining in the swarm of males are then spotted and removed using x-ray technology, leaving a batch of exclusively sterile male mosquitoes.

　　任何留在雄蚊群中的雌蚊将被找出并使用X射线技术移除，留下一批完全不育的雄蚊。

　　Lastly, the male mosquitoes are released - about 1.5 million a month. These sterile males flood the area in which they are released, giving females in the area an 80 percent chance of breeding with a wolbachia-infected male.

　　最后，雄蚊每个月将释放150万只。这些不育的雄蚊将在释放地与当地雌蚊交配产生80%感染沃尔巴克氏体的雄蚊。

　　Since female mosquitoes only mate once in their lives, we want them to mate with our (wolbachia-carrying) males so the eggs they produce will not hatch, said Xi, who leads the lab’s research on the Sterile Insect Technique project.

　　实验室绝育昆虫技术项目领头人悉教授说：“雌蚊的生命中只交配一次，我们希望这些雌蚊能与我们的携带沃尔巴克氏体的雄蚊交配，从而生产的虫卵没有繁殖能力。”

　　Mosquitoes are behind the spread of many diseases. More than half a million people worldwide die from mosquito-borne diseases each year, the WHO has said, and as such research into reducing their numbers has been a key priority for many biotechnology firms.

　　蚊子能传播很多疾病。世界卫生组织曾指出，每年世界上有超过500万的人死于蚊虫传播的疾病。这项可减少蚊子数量的研究对很多的生物技术公司极具意义。