Biological Malaria control – Tilapia
Via Science Daily
A study done by ICIPE (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology) Nairobi shows that Tilapia in ponds significantly controls malaria causing anopheles mosquitoes.
After 15 weeks the fish reduced both Anopheles gambiae s.l. and Anopheles funestus, the region’s primary malaria vectors, by over 94 percent. The fish also decimated three quarters of the culicine mosquito population.
The findings present a win-win situation for Kenyans, who can use the fish to limit mosquito populations and gain food and income from them too. “O. niloticus fish were so effective in reducing immature mosquito populations that there is likely to be a noticeable effect on the adult mosquito population in the area,” Howard says. This control method is apparently sustainable, as the fish breed and provide a continuous population.
Basically if you’ve got a pond put some Tilapia in there to eat the mosquitoes. Good news, though stagnant pools of water are still breeding grounds… still an interesting study and a great suggestion for controlling malaria.
This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Health, Ideas, Kenya, malaria. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
bankelele September 11th, 2007 at 8:59 am
I used to hate/fear gecko’s as a kid. Now I welcome them as effecient mosquito terminators