Author: Jo Ohm, Scientist
We are excited to announce that the Verily Debug team is starting a collaboration with the BugOut program on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. BugOut is a community-driven vector control initiative with the mission to reduce Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the Territory. Aedes aegypti is invasive in the BVI and is both a vector of dengue, Zika and chikunguyna diseases, and a significant nuisance pest. The BugOut program is managed by Green VI, a BVI-based non-profit that works on environmental programs including waste management and environmental education.
BugOut’s aim to reduce Aedes aegypti mosquitoes ties in with Green VI’s other environment-focused initiatives, and piggybacks off the waste management effort to clean up neglected containers and piled trash that become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Through targeted education, data-driven field work, and a consistent community presence, Green VI’s BugOut has successfully reduced mosquito breeding sites by 50% over the past 5 years. Debug is partnering with BugOut to launch the next phase of their program to further reduce Aedes aegypti mosquitoes using a Wolbachia-based incompatible insect technique (IIT). We are excited to be on board and looking forward to working on a unique and synergistic approach to mosquito control.
The Debug-BugOut partnership is launching as BugOut Wolbachia and combines Debug’s expertise in Wolbachia-male releases with BugOut’s ongoing efforts to rid the community of larval breeding sites. We will use our combined sets of tools to suppress Aedes aegypti on BVI in a way that follows Green VI’s environmentally-conscious and community-driven mission.
We will spend the next several months supporting Green VI’s BugOut team and their community representatives as they evaluate how to integrate a Wolbachia-male Aedes aegypti release program into their toolkit. Our BugOut Wolbachia collaboration started collecting data on the existing mosquito population on Virgin Gorda in February 2022. We have begun engaging with the community to share knowledge of how Wolbachia works and how it can be used to reduce mosquitoes and hopefully mosquito-borne disease in the BVI. We have also been working with the community on preliminary studies of released Wolbachia male mosquitoes to evaluate their ability to survive and disperse in the field. Virgin Gorda will be the first island in the BVI to pilot the BugOut Wolbachia program as we learn and adapt our methods to match the unique needs of the local community and mosquito population before potentially scaling to other parts of the Territory.
On September 15, the Debug team welcomed Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to our operations in Singapore, as part of his tour of the National Environment Agency (NEA) - Environmental Health Institute (EHI) Mosquito Production Facility. In addition to ongoing threats from Covid-19, dengue remains a top priority in Singapore, and his tour highlighted the importance of developing novel tools such as Project Wolbachia – Singapore to prevent the spread of dengue.
Prime Minister Lee saw first hand some of the tools that have enabled the success of Project Wolbachia – Singapore, in which Verily has partnered with the NEA-EHI since 2018. As part of the program, Verily has released male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in parts of Tampines town and has achieved a greater than 90% reduction in mosquito population, resulting in 65-80% reduction in dengue cases.
We were honored to demonstrate our technology to Prime Minister Lee and Mrs. Lee, who joined him on the tour. Together they visited our Sex Sorting Room, currently housed within the NEA-EHI Mosquito Production Facility and took a deep dive into understanding our mosquito sex-sorting technology, which has been successfully used in Debug Fresno and Debug Innisfail to separate male and female mosquitoes using a computer vision algorithm and artificial intelligence.
We are excited to continue to deploy our engineering and scientific capabilities to support NEA-EHI in scaling up production, sex sorting and release of male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes over the years to come.
Yanni Yoong, Program Manager, Debug; Hyegi Chung, Country Lead, Verily
“A few years ago I could not even walk to my mailbox without getting several bites on my legs…This year I have only received one bite all summer… Thank you from a happy Clovis resident.” -B.B., Oct 17, 2019
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