tech companies wage war on disease-carrying mosquitoes - how much is a smart board

CHICAGO (Reuters)-
S. technology companies are bringing automation and robotics into this era.
The old task of fighting mosquitoes to stop the spread of Zika and other mosquitoes --
Global range in the disease
Companies including MicrosoftMSFT. O)
California Life Sciences is building partnerships with public health officials in several states of the United StatesS.
The United States will test new heightstech tools.
In Texas, Microsoft is testing an intelligent trap to separate and capture known Zika virus carriers of Egyptian mosquitoes for entomologists to study and give them a breakthrough in predicting the epidemic.
The real letter is (GOOGL. O)
The life sciences department, based in Mountain View, California, is accelerating the process of creating sterile male mosquitoes to mate with wild female mosquitoes, providing the species with a form of contraception.
Public health experts say that while these advances may take several years to be widely available, new participants bring new thinking to vector control, as vector control remains heavily dependent on traditional defense measures such
"It's exciting when tech companies come in," said Anandasankar Ray, an associate professor of insects at the University of California, Riverside.
"Their approach to the biological challenge is to design a solution.
"The Zika outbreak in Brazil in 2015 has resulted in birth defects for thousands of babies, which has increased the urgency of the work.
Although the cases there have slowed significantly, mosquitoes capable of carrying viruses
Egyptian mosquitoes and white-
Spread across the Americas, including large areas of southern America. (For a map of U. S.
Mosquito territory, see tmsnrt. rs/2tqlJHa)
So far, the vast majority of the 5,365 Zika cases reported in the United States have come from travelers elsewhere infected with Zika.
Nevertheless, both Texas and Florida have recorded cases of local mosquito transmission, making them a major test ground for new technologies.
In Texas, 10 mosquito traps made by Microsoft are operating in Harris County, including Houston.
These devices are about the size of a large aviary, using robots, infrared sensors, machine learning, and cloud computing to help health officials keep a close eye on potential disease carriers.
Texas recorded six cases of local mosquito transmission in Zika in November and last December.
Experts believe that the actual number of people may be higher because most infected people do not have symptoms.
Pregnant women are at high risk because they can pass the virus to the fetus, causing various birth defects.
Including microcephaly, skull and brain size at birth.
On February 2016, the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus a global health emergency.
The most traditional mosquito traps capture all mosquitoes.
Moths, flies, other mosquitoes
Leave a pile of specimens for entomologists to organize.
Microsoft's machines distinguish insects by measuring the unique features of each species: the shadows cast by their beating wings.
When a trap detected an Egyptian mosquito in one of its 64 rooms, the door slammed.
Ethan Jackson, Microsoft engineer who is developing the device, said the machine "decided whether to capture it ".
Jackson said the Houston test, which began last summer, showed that the traps could detect Egyptian mosquitoes and other medically important mosquitoes 85% accurately.
The machines also recorded shadows from other insects and environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity.
These data can be used to build models to predict the location and time of mosquito activity.
Mustafa Debon, director of mosquito and vector control at Harris County, said the traps saved time and gave researchers a better understanding of mosquito behavior.
"It's a dream come true for science and research," he said . ".
Now the trap is prototype.
But Microsoft's Jackson said the company eventually wanted to sell the products at a price of several hundred dollars per unit, roughly equivalent to the price of traditional traps.
The goal is to promote widespread adoption, especially in developing countries, in order to detect potential epidemics before they begin.
"What we want is (the traps)
It will enable us to bring more precision to public health . "
At the same time, other companies are developing technologies to reduce the number of mosquitoes by making male Egyptian mosquitoes sterile.
When these sterile males mate with wild females, their eggs do not hatch.
The strategy provides an alternative to chemical pesticides.
But it needs to release millions of labs.
Breed mosquitoes outdoors.
Men don't bite people, which makes it easier to sell to places that are now hosting tests.
Oxitec, Oxford, England
Headquartered in Germantown, Maryland-
It is headquartered in Kerson.
N male mosquitoes that are making genetically modified infertility.
The company has deployed the drugs in Brazil and is seeking regulatory approval in Florida and Texas.
MosquitoMate Inc. , a startup founded by researchers at the University of Kentucky, is using a natural bacteria called Wolbachia to make male mosquitoes sterile.
One of the biggest challenges is gender classification.
At the MosquitoMate lab in Lexington, immature mosquitoes are forced to pass through the sieve --
Like the mechanism of separating smaller males from females.
The mosquitoes are then hand-sorted to remove any stray female mosquitoes that slip through.
"It's basically done with eyeballs," said mosquitmate's chief executive, Stephen Dobson . ". Enter Verily.
The company is automatically sorting mosquitoes with robots to make them faster and more affordable.
Company officials declined to be interviewed.
But on its website, the company made it clear to combine sensors, algorithms, and "new engineering" to speed up the process.
In fact, mosquitoes and mosquitoes have teamed up to test their technology in Fresno, California, where the Egyptian mosquito arrived in 2013.
Officials are concerned that if residents infected with Zika virus in other places are bitten by local mosquitoes, the Zika virus may be spread in Fresno.
"This is a very worrying issue because it is the main carrier of diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika," Steve Mulligan said . ", General Mosquito control area manager, Fresno County.
The study, which still requires state and federal approval, is scheduled to take place later this summer.