Ethiopian
scientists have discovered mosquitoes are repulsed by the smell of chicken,
raising hopes for the development of a novel way to prevent a disease that
kills hundreds of thousands every year.
A team of
insect experts led by Professor Habte Tekie at the University of Addis Ababa
began their investigation after noticing that mosquitoes bite humans and other
animals but stay away from chickens.
“We went into
the chemical basis involved in repelling malaria mosquitoes by odours emanating
from the chickens… The results show that compounds from chicken have very good
potential as repellent,” Tekie told AFP.
“One theory for
their behaviour is that mosquitoes see chickens as a predator, so seek to avoid
them”, he said.
Tests carried
out in three villages in western Ethiopia showed that families that slept
beneath a chicken in a cage overnight were mosquito-free in the morning, while
homes without indoor poultry were not.
The obvious challenges of sleeping with a bird
suspended over the bed were addressed in a follow-up experiment in which
villagers were supplied with vials of chicken extract.
The results
were similar. The findings, recently published in the medical publication
Malaria Journal, will be used in a new collaboration with Swedish scientists to
develop an odourless repellent.
“This repellent
will be safe for human use, (with) no residues contaminating soil or water or
poisoning people and it can easily be integrated into malaria control
operations,” Tekie said.
Malaria
threatens 60 percent of the population of Ethiopia, a nation of almost 100
million people.
The chicken
stock with a difference will be “entirely natural,” according to the scientist,
and the chance of mosquitoes developing resistance is “minimal”.
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