मच्छरों के लिए कृत्रिम खाना तैयार किया गया

Artificial diet, feeding device for mosquitoes

Use : These have potential in rearing mosquitoes for research purposes

ICMR bid to patent two new products

10/07/2022 

The products will allow the efficient mass-rearing of mosquitoes in laboratory.

The ICMR-Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC), Puducherry, 

has filed patent applications for two of its unique products — 

1 an artificial diet 

2 and a feeding device for mosquitoes reared in laboratory — with the Indian Patent Office recently.

Approach 

The team has also planned to approach to patent it at the global level.

Unique number

“Both the products have been awarded a unique number which will protect the Intellectual Property (IP) of both,” Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Director of VCRC said.

The two products allow 

1 efficient and cost-effective mass-rearing / breeding of mosquitoes in laboratory.

2  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.

Speaking about the products, Dr. Nisha Mathew, one of the inventors who formulated 18 different diets, said:

3  “Mosquito females require animal or human blood diet to produce eggs.

4  For this, blood has to be obtained from blood banks or live animals. 

5 Regular supply of blood from blood banks is not easy.

 Considering these challenges and huge potential demand, we have zeroed in on four artificial diets for feeding.”

She further explains, 

6 “These four diets prepared for female mosquitoes are like a baby formula food .

7 and have all the essential nutrients, which are present in the blood. 

8 These diets would attract hungry female mosquitoes to accept the meal, taste like blood, produce healthy and viable eggs.

9  which should hatch like normal eggs, form healthy offspring useful for laboratory research and mass production whenever necessary.”

Food temperature क्या क्या समस्या आती थी ? दूसरा उपकरण है टेम्प्रेचर कंट्रोल करने वाला ।

Dr. Kumar said that the foods needed to be kept at a certain temperature. 

💐“It was very difficult to maintain the feed temperature to the optimum level of 37 degrees Celsius,

 💐which is human body temperature, by usual water circulation or by using the melted wax,” he said.

💐Dr. Mathew said, “Hence a device with controlled temperature was invented.”

महंगी या सस्ती ?

The director said, 

💐“These products are a success story of an artificial mosquito diet and feeder.

 💐that is commercially viable

💐 and has great potential in rearing mosquitoes for research purposes.

💐 It is also capable of 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