Artificial diet and feeding device for mosquitoes

In News: The ICMR-Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC), Puducherry, has filed patent applications for two of its unique products — an artificial diet and feeding device for mosquitoes reared in laboratory — with the Indian Patent Office recently.

• The team has also planned to approach to patent it at global level.
• The two products allow efficient and cost-effective mass-rearing of mosquitoes in laboratory as it is important to keep these mosquitoes healthy to investigate basic facets of their biology and to study vector-borne disease and measures to control it.
• It is quite challenging to keep regular supply of blood from blood banks and to obtain animal ethical clearance to ensure regular supply of blood for rearing mosquitoes for research purposes
• Hence the Institute have zeroed in on four artificial diets for feeding.
• These four diets prepared for female mosquitoes are like a baby formula food and has all the essential nutrients, which are present in the blood.
• These diets would attract hungry female mosquitoes to accept the meal, taste it like blood, produce healthy and viable eggs which should hatch like normal eggs, form healthy useful for laboratory research and mass production whenever necessary.
• It was very difficult to maintain the feed temperature to the optimum level of 37 C, which is human body temperature, by usual water circulation or by using the melted wax.
• Hence a device with controlled temperature was invented, a prototype made and also evaluated for mosquito feeding capability. This could easily replace the conventional hot water circulator-based feeding device

Significance

• These products are commercially viable and technically sound and has great potential in rearing mosquitoes for research purposes and also for the mass production of mosquitoes for their control based on sterile insect technology, population replacement, or population reduction study and Wolbachia endosymbiont bacteria-based control operations.

Source: The Hindu

Previous Year Question

Q.1) Bollgard I and Bollgard II technologies are mentioned in the context of (2021)

1. clonal propagation of crop plants.
2. developing genetically modified crop plants.
3. production of plant growth substances.
4. production of biofertilizers.