The range of the mosquito Aedes aegypti continues to expand, putting more than two billion people at risk of arboviral infection. The sterile insect technique (SIT) has been used to successfully combat agricultural pests at large scale, but not mosquitoes, mainly because of challenges with consistent production and distribution of high-quality male mosquitoes. We describe automated processes to rear and release millions of competitive, sterile male Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes, and use of these males in a large-scale suppression trial in Fresno County, California. In 2018, we released 14.4 million males across three replicate neighborhoods encompassing 293 hectares. At peak mosquito season, the number of female mosquitoes was 95.5% lower (95% CI, 93.6-96.9) in release areas compared to non-release areas, with the most geographically isolated neighborhood reaching a 99% reduction. This work demonstrates the high efficacy of mosquito SIT in an area ninefold larger than in previous similar trials, supporting the potential of this approach in public health and nuisance-mosquito eradication programs.

中文翻译：

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高效生产感染沃尔巴克氏体的雄性埃及伊蚊可以大规模抑制野生种群。

埃及伊蚊的分布范围继续扩大，使超过 20 亿人面临虫媒病毒感染的风险。昆虫不育技术 (SIT) 已成功用于大规模对抗农业害虫，但未能成功对抗蚊子，这主要是因为持续生产和分发优质雄性蚊子存在挑战。我们描述了自动化过程来饲养和释放数以百万计的竞争性、不育的雄性 Wolbachia 感染蚊子，并在加利福尼亚州弗雷斯诺县的大规模抑制试验中使用这些雄性。2018 年，我们在占地 293 公顷的三个复制社区中释放了 1440 万男性。在蚊虫高峰期，与非释放区相比，释放区的雌蚊数量减少了 95.5%（95% CI，93.6-96.9），地理上最孤立的社区减少了 99%。这项工作证明了蚊子昆虫不育技术在比以前类似试验大九倍的区域中的高效性，支持这种方法在公共卫生和滋扰蚊子根除计划中的潜力。