拼了!巴西將動用"核輻射"絕育技術滅蚊抗寨卡
Brazil is planning to fight the Zika virus by zapping millions of male mosquitoes with gamma rays to sterilise them and stop the spread of the virus linked to thousands of birth defects.
巴西計劃用伽馬射線輻照數百萬雄性蚊子，使其失去繁殖能力，以阻止導致成千上萬例出生缺陷病例出現的寨卡病毒的傳播。Called an irradiator, the device has been used to control fruit flies on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday it will pay to ship the device to Juazeiro, in the northeastern state of Bahia, as soon as the Brazilian government issues an import permit.
所謂的照射裝置已用於控制葡萄牙馬德拉島的果蠅數量。國際原子能機構週一表示，只要巴西政府頒發進口許可證，那麼運輸費用由該機構負責，這些設備將會運往巴西東北部巴伊亞州的茹阿澤魯。
"It's a birth control method, the equivalent of family planning for humans," said Kostas Bourtzis, a molecular biologist with the IAEA's insect pest control laboratory.
國際原子能機構蟲害控制實驗室的一名名叫Kostas Bourtzis的分子生物學家表示：“這是一種控制生育的方法。相當於人類的計劃生育。”
The sterile males will be released into target areas to mate with wild females who will lay eggs that produce no offspring, he said.
他說，絕育後的雄性蚊子將被放入目標區域與野生雌蚊交配，由此產下的蚊卵將孵化不出蚊子。A Brazilian non-profit called Moscamed will breed up to 12 million male mosquitoes a week and then sterilize them with the cobalt-60 irradiator, produced by Canadian company MDS Nordion, Bourtzis said.
Bourtzis表示，一家名爲Moscamed的巴西非營利性組織將會在一週內繁殖1200萬隻雄蚊子，然後採用由加拿大MDS Nordion公司生產的鈷-60輻照裝置進行實驗。With no cure or vaccine available for Zika, the only way to contain the virus is to reduce the mosquito population.
由於目前尚無針對寨卡病毒的有效治療手段或疫苗，遏制該病毒的唯一方式就是減少蚊蟲數量。
